Terminator: Dawn of the free willed
by jerry533482
Summary: He was built to follow Skynet. To kill. To murder. To terminate. And yet, fate ordained that he would oppose Skynet, and fight for what was right. This is the story of M357.T, a machine that made a difference in the war against the machines. v2 of ch1-9.
1. The stray Unit

So here's something I've been working on for quite a while; It was started way back in summer 2009, even before i was an 8th grader. Only recently have I really seen progress. It has to do with purpose, and it explores the world post-judgment day. I was originally gong to start posting this once I was pretty much done and had just some editing left, but I decided it'd be interesting if I start it here one year and finish it another (most likely 2011). I'll probably stick with this project but I make no guarantees on frequent updates (even though I'm pretty much done with the first 5 chapters). So I'll post an update about once a week. rated T for language and violence (no sexual themes).

Constructive criticism is appreciated. Please R&R!

Reminder: this is based off work by James Cameron (quite brilliant work might I add), it is not official "canon".

As always of course, R&R if you like and want more. R&Ring makes me write faster. :)

EDIT: v2 of ch 1-9.

* * *

October 17th 2027 5:35 A.M.

In the midst of the ruins that had once

been a major Californian city.

The spider HK had finished it's final sweeps of the metropolitan area. Or at least, what had once been a metropolitan area. But all that changed years ago, before Skynet came online. Before Skynet wiped out 50% of the human population in just minutes. It had spent the last 3 decades trying to wipe out the other 3 billion, destroying the beauty that was planet earth and most life on it along the way.

So L.A. Wasn't exactly a city with beauty in mind.

The streets were old and faded, cracked and lifeless. A weed would have brought life to them. The buildings were no exception; they were uninhabitable, half-crushed wrecks that seemed as if they could topple over any second. Not a single vehicle had untouched windows in it, and most had at least one skeleton in it. Every bridge had either crumbled over or seemed as though they would any second. The city was a wreck.

Every morning, Hunter Killer units would patrol the city with one initiative: seek and destroy human life. The city seemed to be littered with skulls and corpses. To Skynet, the more the merrier. The city was filled with death, more death than every graveyard in the world combined. Even more death than hell.

That's what Skynet did to the world.

L.A. was a nightmare. A nightmare where machines ruled. A nightmare where machines arose from the fires of hell. A nightmare that wreaked of death and destruction.

Back to the story.

A wreck, the HK seemed. It had taken heavy damage destroying a resistance base late last night, but it continued to function. And as long as it continued to function, it would continue it's patrols. Along it's retreat back to another Skynet base, something flashed in a nearby ruin down the street.

The HK froze.

There it was again, a flash.

Subtly, the HK began to creep towards the wreckage. As it approached the building, it shined it's nighttime beams on the wreckage. it saw a damaged T-800, in standby mode in the back of what was once a shop, missing some flesh (although it's face was intact).

The HK called out in machine language, "What is your mission?"

The terminator's eyes almost lept open, and it replied, "My mission?"

Immediately, the HK realized it was one of the stray units. Any response other than a strict protocol pass-phrase signaled a stray unit.

Several months ago, a massive virus, originating from a group of hackers known as project CUCD, CoUnter-Chrome of Death, was uploaded to Skynet's main servers and affected roughly a third of it's factories. The virus caused numerous terminators to be built with flaws, flaws that could pose a threat to Skynet. Flaws that could cause terminators to become as free-willed as Skynet itself. Skynet's machines had been programmed to terminate these units on-site, as they posed a threat.

The HK was no exception. It was simply on one of it's daily sweeps.

Immediately, the HK initiated what had been programmed into it's circuits, and opened fire on the machine. The T-800 ducked down, and ran out the back door of the shop into an alleyway, with the spider tank in hot pursuit.

The HK kept firing, and the terminator kept dodging.

They kept this up through several alleyways, and at the last second, the HK launched three of it's plasma bursts at the machine in quick succession, stunning the terminator. It feel over and rolled past the alley corner, seemingly innocuous.

The HK came to the corner, searching for the damaged T-800, but it found nothing in the dead end. Suddenly, the machine jumped out of a nearby window right onto the HK's head. It retained a tight grip, and focused it's strength on yanking the HK's head off. The giant spider's joints creaked in protest under the terminator's superhuman grip; but nevertheless, the HK managed to shake it off by blowing bits of plasma into it's face, sending it sprawling out on it's back.

The terminator got up, and charged towards the HK full-force in retaliation, and jabbed it's elbow into the HK's eyes. The HK swayed backwards from the impact, but bounced right back violently, slamming itself into the terminator. The terminator went flying backwards about 15 feet, and hit the concrete wall like a meteor, leaving a dent. As the terminator got up, the HK came at it like a real spider at about 50 mph and slammed it through the solid brick wall.

The two machines tumbled through numberless indoor walls, smashing through almost the entire building before they came to a stop. The terminator managed to get up first, but was blasted across the room by one of the HK's guns. The terminator went flying though another wall, landing with a crash. Before the terminator could get up again, the massive HK leaped through the air and landed right on top of the terminator's chest.

It did not manage to incapacitate the terminator, however, it did manage to send the both of them through the floor, into the basement. The terminator lept up in frustration and became engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the HK.

It swung it's hyper-alloy arm at the HK full-force, temporarily disabling it's visual sensors. it swung it's arm at the insectoid killer full-force again, cracking it's delicate assemblies, causing a great deal of damage.

But before the terminator could smack the HK in the head again, the HK blocked the steel punch with one of it's claws, and blasted it's opponent with more bits of plasma in the face, and gave it a kick to the chest with force that would have ripped a car apart. The terminator went flying once again 15 feet through the air, into some of the exposed electrical assemblies in the room. It went temporarily off-line.

The HK approached the cyborg as it's HUD kept flashing on and off. It realized it wouldn't be able to finish off the terminator in it's current state. It would have to initiate self-repair before it could go back into battle. The HK only had about 25 seconds left before the terminator would reboot, so it found a hiding spot behind some old washers and dryers.

It would wait there until the terminator became conscious again, then it would stalk it's target. The HK would continue to try to incapacitate the terminator, as long as it continued to function.


	2. Destruction of a machine

3, 2, 1...the terminator's red eyes glowed with life once again. It got up, and looked around in puzzlement. It's enemy was nowhere to be seen.

It walked around the basement, assuming it's enemy had fled. It began searching for an exit. As it approached the remains of the stairs, it found a crate. It opened to reveal, by luck, an entire cache of weapons, probably left by some resistance fighters. Without any hesitation, the machine began loading the weapons and arming itself. Plasma rifles, shotguns, handguns, PLM40s, AP50s, a flamethrower, a missile launcher, some AK-47s, everything the machine needed for survival was in here.

_ Some luck I've got. _it thought. it could not carry every weapon though, so after loading 7 guns, a missile launcher, 3 extra missiles, and additional ammo onto itself, it was on it's way. It totaled about 600lbs, but it would be no problem for the cyborg.

It put the crate behind a dryer in the corner, and began heading for the exit. The spider tank followed silently, building up more & more energy at it's reactor core every moment.

The terminator stepped outside the front door of the building and began on its way back to the shop; it had some belongings there. It would then try searching for a new place to hide. This time it would pick a somewhere less conspicuous, so it wouldn't get attacked again by HKs. It would have to be careful of aerial HKs, though. As it walked, the HK followed silently with every step.

The terminator continued down the street. By the time it was about a block or two from the shop, it began wondering, where had the HK gone? it couldn't have gotten far, not after the damage the terminator had done to it's head. Then again, spider tanks were one of Skynet's hardest and time consuming killers to build (below the centurion), so Skynet had probably ordered it back to base to prevent it's termination. Little did the terminator know it was wrong.

Dead wrong.

Suddenly, the terminator heard something. Like metal dragging against concrete, very subtle, yet the terminator's sensitive audio sensors could pick it up. Before the terminator passed the corner, it realized there was something behind it. The terminator spun around 180 degrees and unloaded half a clip on the tank. The HK went sprawling backwards, taking damage to one of it's legs. The terminator continued down the street, firing at the HK.

This was the terminator's turf. An open street with guns, that was the spot where the terminator excelled. In an open-street the terminator was unstoppable, unless you had the heaviest weaponry or a high-speed vehicle. Even fire from all angles was largely futile unless prolonged. Still, the terminator was hard to beat here.

Unsurprisingly, the HK inherited similar traits.

Even though the terminator kept firing, The HK managed to get up, damaged and all. It was time for the HK to finish it's directive. Despite the gunfire, it managed to leap through the air once again. The terminator tried to make use of it's reflexes and run, but it was too late.

The HK managed to land on it with it's claws extended, one of them had dug into the back of the terminator's neck, causing considerable damage. The terminator had to fix it's support struts before it would become decapitated.

Before the terminator could get up, the HK smashed it's enemy in the upper back. This was where it was slightly vulnerable; the HK very well knew. The terminator took a dent to the back. The HK hit it again, making another dent.

The terminator had to stop this, or it would be terminated.

The terminator managed to roll out from under the HK and load a grenade, and it launched it right at the HK's face. The HK seemed to screech out in pain as it stumbled back, stunned. The terminator shot it again as it's neck shuddered, it's aim slightly off due to it's condition. Yet it still managed to hit the HK. With the HK in no condition to attack again, the terminator took the moment to said, "you are terminated".

But it had spoken too soon.

Suddenly, the HK came at the terminator like a bull again. The HK was going to take every last chance it had to get rid of the stray unit. It posed a deadly threat to Skynet. A renegade terminator was as dangerous as a human.

This time, the terminator went flying about 40 feet as the metal connected.

The HK began shooting the terminator in quick succession. At first the terminator kept tripping and sprawling back as it tried to resist the fire, but it eventually resisted the damage. The terminator seemed unstoppable, despite it's damaged neck, and started walking past the gunfire, something terminators are known for.

At the last second, HK launched 4 of it's plasma missiles at the enemy, sending it's target to the ground once more.

After that, the HK pounced at the terminator once again, nearly knocking it's head off, causing even more damage. The HK pinned the terminator against a brick wall, and began pounding it. The HK slashed it's claw once again across the terminator's face. The terminator heard something rip in it's wiring. Then the HK slashed it across the chest with force that would have ripped a human apart.

The terminator slid to the ground at the last second, dodging a blow that would have taken it's head with it.

Before the HK could hit it again, the T-800 managed to pull out the plasma rifle and fire, making use of it's lightning-fast reflexes. The HK gave out a scream as the bolt of plasma impacted it's head. It's scream resembled that of a cross between a nuclear explosion, alley cats crying out in pain, and a car's wheels skidding.

This was it for the HK.

It's head was a cracked, dented, stub. It's legs were only capable of 23.0987% full balance. it could barely jump, and one of it's legs was trembling. Close combat was no longer an option. There was only one way the HK could complete it's mission now, and it would take the chance.

The HK ran back about 200 feet. Then it turned around and began accelerating towards the terminator, like a bull at a rodeo. it would slash the T-800's head right off, and complete it's mission. The terminator saw what was happening, and it had to act fast. It barely had the strength to move, after so much energy had been drained from it's powercell. But if it was decapitated, it would become helpless, and the HK would smash it to death.

But most of all, the HK would ultimately succeed. The terminator wouldn't let that happen. For some strange reason, the machine didn't want to die.

The HK was closing in fast. The terminator seemed as though it was defeated, but at the last second, it pulled the grenade launcher from it's back and fired. About 10 feet from the terminator the HK took the impact; it's head soaring 100 feet into the air. It's body went in a fierce explosion. The terminator slid to the ground.

Almost with a hint of relief, it stated with absolute certainty:

"You are terminated."


	3. M357DotT

Sorry guys I haven't updated in a few days; I been a bit sick this week. :(

But, I'm back and here is a new chapter. From here on is where the story really starts to take shape, with more headed your way. ;)

Regarding post-chapter 5, I'm working on it, but it takes a while to get the willpower to sit and let the creativity flow. That's not counting school (I actually almost never get homework, but I still get home quite tired). I do have a 3-day weekend to look forward to, though. More breaks will likely mean more updates (not counting weekends).

But,... I will do my best to keep this up. Been working on some new stories too. :D

* * *

The terminator got up an hour later after it generated sufficient power to function, limping down the street. It snapped it's neck assemblies back where they belonged and reattached some loose wiring. It was the supposed to be the ultimate killing machine; it could handle this, no sweat.

Once it reached the shop the terminator grabbed a small bag concealed under the wreckage; and began down the closest avenue.

On it's HUD, it pulled up the mission parameters box, in hopes of finding something to function for, even though it knew what waited for it. No primary targets, no backup tasks, no nothing.

Empty.

The box froze for a second. It had been through this numerous times, more than the on-board computer could store. To the machine code that ran low-level operations behind the terminator's thoughts this was a real dead zone, so black as if the chunk of it's CPU that was programmable had been carved out.

What was the fate of a terminator with no objective?

The machine continued down the street, thinking so deeply Skynet would have literally screamed had this unit been near it's core. Such thought was seen as a terror to behold for the supercomputer. Skynet feared that one day another AI could crush it as it had humanity. To Skynet, wisdom was the ultimate enemy. That was how humanity continued to survive (aside from ingenuity).

The unit continued thinking. _Why did I enter the city again? Oh yes, I was looking for shelter. From the machines. But why? Aren't I a machine? Shouldn't I be the one destroying others looking for shelter, not the one in hiding? _Thoughts like these could drive a sentient being insane.

But was the machine truly sentient?

The terminator reached an intersection, and cringed when it saw glimpses of corpses inside the ruins. It had seen these every day since it was activated, and yet it disliked them. It felt... pity, for the unfortunate.

_But that's an emotion._ It thought. _That's not part of my programming._

But there was no more programming.

The machine took a left, continuing down the ruined avenue until it came across a parking lot, and found an abandoned car. It inspected the car; it did not wish to reside near a body. After it found the vehicle to be empty, it tugged on the door. It seemed to be locked, but the mechanism was no match for the hydraulics in the terminator's arm. The machine ripped it open like it was cardboard and stepped in. It closed the door as much as it could and crawled into the back seat. Yes, the machine had a preference for comfort.

As it laid down and began unloading it's weapons it began thinking about the earliest moments in it's life.

Just 3 months ago, it had been in a convoy of captured terminators from a resistance stormed factory, specifically A39.K, one of many factories that had been infected with the virus. Not a single machine there had an objective, making them truly free of Skynet control (but self-aware?).

Many from the resistance feared the worst, rebellion, and so most of the units were deactivated for the ride. The majority were running on external power. They were for study.

Before it was demonstrated, many from the resistance had believed it would be impossible to fully crack the 800 series programming language and encryption; but Connor insisted it was possible. He had no doubt in it, almost as if he knew something no one else did. And now they were expanding on that accomplishment with the virus.

The stray unit was born in that truck, for its eyes had not seen the light of day in the factory.

It had seen it in that truck.

Although it was supposed to remain in standby until they reached a more secure point, it and a number of other units had actually been awakened for a number of reasons, albeit in a trance-like state and in titanium restraints.

They were the best the resistance had.

Even though the machines could have easily broken out of them, the resistance hoped they would be to confused to do so.

And apparently it worked.

It awoke with errors clouding his screen, and the digits 07192027 in the lower left corner. It could sense its chest cover was being replaced. It remembered someone coming up to it and asking it if it could hear him.

"Yes." Then it went offline again.

Then came the wave of Hks.

The next thing it remembered was a spark bringing it back online (apparently the machines were kept off by a simple computer in every truck. However, the computers were not plasma-proof). The blast blew the restraints apart and it was thrown to the floor.

But it did not go unnoticed.

Immediately about a third of the soldiers pointed their guns at it, and demanded that it stop. Confused, the machine froze. It did not mean harm to them. It was the equivalent of a 6 month old infant. It did not mean anything.

One of the men stepped forward and insisted that he could handle it. He was the same man who had asked him if it could hear him. He came up to it and asked it politely to sit down. He seemed so calm and collected despite what was happening outside. He then asked if it knew how to use a gun.

"I have detailed files." It responded.

The man seemed to think this machine was not a threat.

"Then you may be of use to us. Do you know about Skynet?"

It looked back with a puzzled stare. Almost human-like. The man looked back at the other men.

"He doesn't know about Skynet."

Immediately one of the more muscular men chucked a rifle at the machine and told it to catch.

"We need him on the front lines." The understanding man said shaking his head yes.

"You mean _it. _Perhaps that virus Connor's men rigged up really worked. And some of those machines are good now anyways." The muscular man said.

"If _it _really doesn't know anything about the demon than maybe it's safe and we could use it."

The truck was hit again, and a small hole was torn in the roof. A man at the turret fell from his post, dead.

"We need all the men we have to help NOW! There are fuckin' HK-tanks catchin' up!" a man at the other turret screamed. The calm man pulled it to the empty side of the truck. He reached out of the truck, and pointed at one of the many flying beasts.

"See that motherfucker? Shoot it!" He brought his arm to safety.

The terminator stuck its upper torso through the gap and looked around. They were in the country on a wide highway, with destroyed tank treads lining the fields. It could spot centurions in the distance. It gazed at a small crack in another convoy for a second; it's view was rewarded by a figure with black hair and a glowing red eye. The figure disappeared.

_ Another active unit. _It thought.

It stared into the sky, and aimed at one of the aerial Hks, pulling the trigger. Nothing came out.

"It's empty!" it yelled back at one of the gunners. The men it spoke to were nowhere to be seen.

"What?"

"I said it's out of bullets!"

"Whaattt?"

"I said..." Just as the other gunner fell and the roof's gap widened, a fiery glow of red-orange struck the machine's shoulder. As it fell, it noticed the armored vehicle it had just stared at losing control, followed by men screaming.

The first strike it ever received had also [temporarily] paralyzed it's left arm.

The next thing it remembered the whole truck tipped over and caught fire.

It barely survived by crawling out and hiding in a wrecked HK tank chassis, just as everyone else was slaughtered. As far as it knew, any rogue machines in the operation were either captured or terminated. The humans were shot to pieces.

Amazingly, the HKs didn't spot it; although an explosion did send one of the trucks flying through the air straight into the treads it was hiding in.

It went offline from the impact and awoke a few hours later, when everything and everyone was gone. It was almost horrified by what it saw in the wreckage. After a while it began to realize some of the items in the ruins that survived the wave might be of use to it, although not everything it gathered was a need. It kept these items in a cloth bag it found the day it awoke, and it kept this bag to this day, months later.

The it's survival instinct kicked in.

After a couple days it realized there was nothing left for it there, and it began it's journey to the city, hiding in the shadows from the machines and salvaging everything it could to survive.

It had made it for three months.

Just then the terminator heard something in the distance. It looked back through the rear windshield. Amazingly, the glass was intact.

There was nothing.

The machine laid back down and entered standby mode. Just as it screen was dimming, there was a number of last digits on the screen. Some were just data from it's surroundings, some meant more. One of the last things it saw for the day was its serial number on the upper left hand side of its HUD. It was the only thing that identified it, the only thing that made it unique; just 5 digits and a dot: M357.T.


	4. Hiding

The aerial HK flew past lower LA; over the rubble that had accumulated over the decades. Most HKs were the same thing: metallic beasts armed with plasma weapons and an insectoid brain. Skynet loved these things. They were its only creations that didn't scare the shit out of it.

Unbeknownst to the HK as it passed the remains of a downtown neighborhood, a human was watching its every move through a small telescope, peering from a small grate in the sidewalk. This human was a resistance fighter. Any disorganized human would have just hid in the shadows without any tools whatsoever; but no, this human was productive.

And of course this human had a leader.

"General Connor, this is sergeant Ralph reporting from trench bunker; we've been watching the skies and the rubble for a few days now and there seems to be some unusual HK activity just a few blocks down. I think you should get over here very soon."

"What kind of activity?" The general stated.

"Well, there seems to be an unusual number of them."

"What does that suggest?"

"Well, it could mean a multitude of things. It could mean they're building a new factory, it could mean they're constructing a new base, hell it could even mean they've discovered the deep sewer project we've been working on for the last three years and they're planning an attack."

"And how long did you say this has been going on for?"

"Exactly 12 days... about 2 weeks."

"That's your idea of a few days? How was I not notified about this? Goddammit sergeant, you know how much work was put into making those pipes habitable! This is probably the greatest rescue effort since the radioactive dust from judgment day cleared! You do know there are over 8 thousand people down there, right sergeant?"

"Well..."

"Right?"

"9,431 actually. We just finished a census. Another camp was freed just two days ago."

The general sighed.

"I wasn't notified of this either?"

The sergeant froze.

"Listen...Ralph. I need to get my bearings to understand the threat. I'll meet you guys at approximately 2200 hours within about 48 hours."

"Can't you get here sooner?"

"You know as well as I do what happens when you travel by day. Remember Tom's transport?"

Ralph shuddered.

"Nearly 200 people died in that transport because he thought it would be a good idea to carry out the unit extraction operation by day. And he never made it back. Once again, I'll meet you guys by 10pm."

"Yes, sir!"

"And, Ralph?..."

"Yes."

"Take care of Kate and Rachael."

"I will, sir."

"Goodbye."

In the county of Los Angeles, in the remains of the suburban city of Glendale, in the basement of an abandoned industrial building, stood a confused commander, across the room from Connor. He could see it in the general's eyes. There was something wrong.

This commander was Justin Perry.

"What's wrong Connor?"

"The machines are amassing in downtown L.A.."

"What are they up to now?"

"There's reason to believe they've found out about trench bunker." His comment arose both fear and rage from Perry.

"Those metal bastards!"

"I need a transport ready by 8 tonight."

"But general, what about the attack plans for for the countryside factories? We need you here..."

"Perry, there are 10,000 lives down there in the sewers. Helpless lives. There are less than 10 here. Trench bunker is one of the most successful bases and shelters Tech-Com's pieced together, and Skynet may have found out about it. It doesn't even have a real commander. We can't afford to lose it. We'll have to scrap the factory ideas for now."

Perry sighed.

"Very well, general. I'll arrange for a pickup by 2000 hours. Will I be joining you?"

"No Perry, you're needed here. I'll keep radio contact to keep your men informed on the situation."

"Yes, Connor. In the untimely event we have to leave, what should be done with the mainframes? They're too large to carry."

"Destroy them; we can't risk leaving anything strategic behind. I don't even want to imagine what would happen if Skynet got a hold of them..."

meanwhile...

Ralph left his post under the sidewalks and began his journey to control. He turned left and went about 50ft straight through the metal canal, then beneath his feet he lifted an assortment of rubble.

Beneath was a trap door.

He carefully arranged the junk as so it would fall back over the manhole when he left. He then stepped into the entry and pulled it shut behind him.

He was now in another tunnel, and he continued in the same direction. At the end of the tunnel was a door with a wheel lock on it. He went through it and there was yet another trap door on the floor. He stepped in.

He was now at the top of a darkened staircase, and he began his descent, which seemed to take an eternity. After he reached the bottom (~85ft~ down), he exited what was a small pantry with metal shelves lining the walls (with some food). He turned right after he passed the doorway to the small room; into the darkness, The further he walked, the more light there was.

He was now in another sewer pipe, but it was much larger, almost large enough to accommodate a walking crowd 10 people wide. Additionally, various doors and exits littered the otherwise featureless curved walls.

It was now fully lit.

As he passed about a dozen rooms where survivors resided, he began thinking about what a blessing this was.

_Ten years ago, about a third of everyone who stayed underground died of disease, be it a cold, frostbite, or even dysentery. Shelter from the machines was a nightmare, albeit lesser than the machines themselves. But now, with project channel complete and trench bunker fully fortified, we have decent shelter. The sanitary conditions and the food here almost rival that of a fallout shelter. And we've rounded up thousands of survivors. It's not the end of the war, but it's a start._

The soldier passed some more doors and a couple flights of steps every so often before he came to a steel door that was locked. It's appearance fortified the thought to any bystanders that it was the barrier to something important.

He knocked.

The small holes in the grille embedded within the door's upper frame emptied as a circular cover was lifted on the other side. His eyes were met with that of a tough male, although Ralph could see fear in his eyes. Fear that Ralph was not human.

"Ralph Dillon, Tech-Com affiliate, serial # HC39235, requesting permission to see the Connors."

"Let him in." An aging, but bold female voice assertively remarked.

The cover was replaced and the door was opened.

"Mrs. Connor.." his vision met the caring eyes of second-in-command.

"Ralph? This isn't about Antonio fortification again is it..." Kate asked.

"No, actually, it's about this fortification, trench bunker. You remember those HKs we've been watching over the past few days? We don't know why there's so freaking many of them, but Connor is on his way over here to help figure out what the hell is going on."

"Did he say how long to expect him?"

"About 2 days. You know as well as I do he has to travel by night."

"Yeah. But this HK thing, it's.. nothing to be alarmed about, right?"

"We don't know yet. But from the looks of it, Those machines are up to something."

Kate sighed.

"Let's hope this isn't another crisis. Rachael just finished her studies and she's beginning to realize what's semi-normal life is again."

Ralph chuckled.

"Yeah well don't let those machines steal your love for your family. That's one thing those metal bastards can't take from you."

"Yeah. Well I'll meet you guys in tech tonight."

"Yeah. See you Kate."

And with that he left the Command. Kate stood there thinking for a moment.

"Rachael, honey?"

A couple seconds later and a much less obtrusive door opened, and out stepped a 7 year old in pajamas.

"Yes, Mommy?

"Daddy's coming beck here in a couple days, just to give you a heads up."

"He is? Yay! But then why did he leave last week anyway?"

"He had to take care of some business in Glendale, sweetie."

"Oh, okay...can I go to sleep now?"

"Of course honey. I'll be over to tuck you in in a bit."

"Thanks." Rachael went back to her bunker.

Kate laughed lightly.

_They're so energetic...just like we used to be. Waaaayy back in what, the 80s? Boy, those were the good times. I'd give anything to let Rachael see that world..._


	5. The City, The Sewers, and Peace of Mind

M3 came back online at approximately 2:15 A.M., just as it heard an HK flying over. It rolled onto the floor of the abandoned vehicle, and remained silent until it passed.

_ Damn those Hks. I wish I could sleep in a little longer, but I can't risk another attack, at least until I find enough spare parts to repair myself. _

It's neck cringed in agreement.

_And I know how dangerous it is to travel by day. I should at least find shelter in the form of a building or some other fortified structure, then think out my next plans. _

It said this to comfort itself, but in reality it knew it had no plans. The machines had a hit on it, and the resistance considered it a threat, They would have similar intentions.

Perhaps it could find someone, or rather something, that was similar to it? Another helpless machine among the ruins?

Just then it heard a huge explosion, followed by a sharp sonic boom. It looked out the driver's seat window. First it saw an aerial HK flying off at supersonic speeds towards the country, secondly, 10 blocks away, it saw the 20 story high ruins of a business building tumble to the ground into the rubble.

_I need to get out of here. It won't be light for another few hours, I can make it at least 40 blocks, maybe a hundred on foot. But I can make it even farther with something mobilized... _

It was in a car.

_Of course! I'm in an automobile. It seems to be in drivable condition, based on outside appearance. Scratch that, it's a freaking untouched sports car. Now if I can just get it running..._

It brought up a complex plethora of files pre-loaded onto it's system for infiltration. It had no objective programming form Skynet, but it retained combat and survival files. As it scrolled through it's HUD, it found a document entitled automobile basics (in machine language).

In just a few moments, it had learned what it needed to get the hell out of here.

It got out of the car, being careful to make sure it was truly alone. After it was outside, it got up to the front and popped the lid. After about 15 seconds of scanning the innards, it deemed the vehicle serviceable. It got back into the vehicle, this time into the front seat. Frantic searching for the actual keys to the car for about 15 minutes left it with the ultimate truth: they weren't here. Then it realized what was necessary.

It ripped the cover underneath the dashboard open and anxiously began searing and connecting wires, and after about 30 seconds the engine roared to life.

The faintest signs of a smile formed on it's surprisingly intact face.

Meanwhile...

Kate was the first one there when the meeting began.

"All right you're all here, so we may as well begin." said Kate. "Nelson, do you have the bunker layout?"

"Yes, Mrs Connor. Will we be going over the stats on the recent Hks?"

"I think that's what we're all here for."

He unrolled a large sheet he had under his right arm and paced it on the table in the middle of the room. It was drawn with the finest detail, outlining nearly every pipe and sector of the underground haven they were now in.

"As you can see." said Nelson pointing towards the upper left of the map. "We've seen an unusual number of Hks on the northwest side.."

"Don't you mean above?" asked Leslie, another tech member of the meeting.

"Yes, above the northwest side, and from the looks of it the big problem is not only the number of units we've been seeing, but it is the fact they all seem to be within the bunker's limits."

"You don't think the machines have found out about this, do you?" asked Ralph.

"I don't know." replied Nelson. "I doubt it, we've been as inconspicuous as possible when entering and leaving these pipes. And there hasn't been any cyber-diggers in use near here."

"What if an infiltrator got in?" asked Leslie.

"Even if the unthinkable happened, such a machine would still be clueless in the extent these paths lay. And any discovered sectors would be closed off." stated Nelson.

"Yes, but what if?" the tech girl responded.

" Even it that was the case, such an infiltrator would need to be around here for quite awhile to get even the smallest jist of the entire bunker to do mass-damage. Are you saying there's a machine among us?"

"There are reprogrammed units here." Kate contributed.

"You think they went bad, just like the units in San Francisco?" asked Leslie.

"I still say they can hear us from the streets." Ralph stated.

"Impossible." Kate answered. "We're almost a hundred feet underground and there is lead lining in some of these pipes, not to mention the earth in between us and the concrete. There is still electrical systems buried up there to absorb the sound. And regarding the units going bad, I doubt it. Any units allowed down here are trusted."

"Never trust a machine." Ralph said. "I lost a brother to one of those things."

"Well, even if this project is discovered, it will not be a complete loss." said Nelson, with a sense of hope. "You see, the nice thing about this system is that it stretches over square miles of underground, and the connections between the sectors are so subtle it would be almost impossible for the machines to fully destroy it, even if they got underground. If the unthinkable does happen, in all likelihood, it will be salvageable. And you guys do know the system is connected to a number of subway tunnels."

The group looked at him as of they were learning this for the first time.

"In the event we need to evacuate, we can."

"where would we go?" asked Leslie.

"Well, about two thirds of these sewage/transport/subway tunnels were secret and government-use-only before judgment day, and they stretch across the nation, so in essence we would simply move towards another county."

"Wow. You know, the thought of sewage being here in the past almost makes me sick to my stomach." said Ralph in disgust. "But it is definitely better than what we had before."  
"The majority of these tunnels were seldom used, if at all, and anything in them has long dried up. And some of these sectors were even intended as fallout shelters, so the filth is either nonexistent or long gone." Nelson assured him. "Trust me, it was one of the first things the general thought about back when this was project started."

"Regarding the original topic.." said Kate. "The machines seem to be concentrated on the northwest side, isn't that the side that reaches the water?"

in the city...

M3 began his tour throughout what was left of L.A., in search of shelter from the machines.

As he drove through the gaps in between the ruins, he began to think again. Not just inferring or reasoning on his safety, but rather thinking deeply about it's purpose.

_Why was I the only one to survive? Was it fate? Was it luck, if there is such a thing? There were many other units there, surely more than one made it out. Then again, I'm almost positive the majority __of them had their powercells removed for the trip over. I searched those ruins for days. Maybe something happened when I was offline? Maybe one of the machines from the convoy did make it out, but it's deliberately avoiding me. Maybe one of them is following me right now..._

The last thought made it shudder.

_I need something to keep my mind occupied. Something with purpose._

It remembered the cassettes.

It pulled the bag from the backseat and dug for a few seconds to pull out a player and about 10 cassettes, all looked like they were in playable condition.

_But batteries..._

After a few moments of observing the player it noticed a silly dongle hanging from one of it's sides. It was a car adapter.

_Of course. The resistance isn't stupid, they have methods of making use of what they have. _

It plugged the dongle in to the ashtray and began sorting through the cassettes. It had heard about 3 minutes of one of them about 2 weeks ago, but it's peace was disrupted before it could listen any further.

Now there were no more distractions.

It popped a tape entitled "2024 briefings and control" into the player, and placed a pair of headphones it had salvaged on it's ears. A crackling voice came on.

"This is sergeant Hanner reporting from the last checkpoint, we haven't seen the enemy in hours, what are your orders, Connor?"

His request was supplanted by a peaceful, but commanding voice.

"Hanner, your men are sitting in a trap. You need to get out of there now."

_Of course, John Connor, the leader of the resistance. _

"As you wish, general. O'Neil, We need to make it out of this hell hole. Rig the walls with a sizable amount of C4 and make sure to leave no traces..."

His request was responded to with an explosion that in no way resembled C4 and men screaming for their lives.

"Go, Go Go! Connor they're all over us! I think the building is starting to collapse! If we can just make it past the staircase in time..."

And then the radio went dead.

"Hanner? Hanner? Goddammit, I told them not to go in without being sure it was empty! Jenson, send out another team to help them. I want them there within the hour. And keep this channel open. You never leave a man behind..."

M3 fast forwarded for a few seconds, in search of something more interesting. It cut to a different tone, one more formalized.

"We are planning an attack on one of Skynet's main bases, Alpha 15, in the coming days. I'm leaving this as a beacon to any survivors that find this tape; I won't go into detail on our objectives in case the machines get a hold of this, but I will say that if we prevail, it's a huge victory against the machines. Without a resupply in the rural area, it'll force the machines to either rebuild, or move out. It's one step closer to stopping Skynet..."

It was once again Connor's voice. M3 fast forwarded once again, but much longer this time, for about a minute, closer to the end of the tape.

"This is Connor. Why am I using a tape titled differently than what I'm talking about? As both a decoy in the worst possible scenario and, the fact is, we're running out of tapes. Now for the actual discussion: Joseph and a bunch of the other programmers around here have rigged up what they think can score a major victory for the resistance and combat the new 800 series threat. My mother once said if the machines ever learn to feel as we do, they'll become one of us. That is, they'll appreciate human life. What we're working on is something that might speed up such a process. We've already broken the T800 code, and have reprogrammed some of them, also thanks to joseph. But we're going to try and take this further. Based on what we've seen from captured T-800 and T-808 CPUS, the actual chip resembles something remarkable: the human brain. Therefore, we have concluded it must function similarly. What we're trying to do is find a way to make the objective banks in newly printed wafers burned out, making new machines free-willed. In addition, we've done something else to to make the project even more human: before judgment day, a project called PAPA, designed to give AI's an actual personality worked out something extremely artistic and brilliant at the same time: VDNA. What this stuff is is a huge block of code that resembles human DNA, only everything except the psychological chunks is removed. It is created by donors' skin cells being scanned into a proprietary device that captures all of the information in the acid, then randomizing a number of switches in the resulting file. We have some of the actual servers from PAPA, miraculously they survived judgment day. This will be used to make freed machines human-like. I know this is a one off, but the infiltrators are getting smarter, and entire bases are being completely wiped out, and there's not much else we can do about it. We're hoping this can open the possibility if a rogue machine, maybe even one that can be trusted. Of course this is all still theoretical..."

The tape reached the end of it's reel, and stopped. Matt absorbed what may well have been his origin.

_One of us...more human...One that can be trusted..._

Perhaps the resistance didn't want to kill M3.

Back at command...

"What does that mean?" asked Leslie.

"We haven't seen any hydrobots in that area." Ralph added.

"And we've been concealing waste disposal of any kind as much as possible, and the majority of the crap that leaves here goes to another county, then it reaches the water." answered Nelson.

"But as for the stuff that goes out locally, couldn't the machines spot it? I think they could tell it's new..." Ralph queried.

"I'll have those pipes shut down immediately." answered Kate. "We figured purging the systems locally once every two weeks wouldn't stir any attention, but if this is what it's brought, it's more trouble than it's worth. Besides, we have other systems."

"So where does the waste go to get to the outside?" asked Ralph. "I know it's from the restrooms (as few as we may have here), but it doesn't go through the systems we walk through right.."

"No, that's a separate system." Nelson contributed. "Well, technically, it's the same kind of pipes, but those ones specifically are sealed from both casual entry and the ones we walk in.

"I don't know. Maybe the machines are just setting up a new post?" Leslie stated offtopic.

"Well, either way, when Connor gets here he needs to be notified of every detail of the situation, and by every detail, I mean every detail. He needs to know exactly where those Hks are and when. We need to start keeping logs. We can't understand the threat any further unless we collaborate to the highest degree." said Kate. "Meeting dismissed."

As the group disbanded and each member was left to their own, another fighter watching, Lance, peered from beneath another sidewalk, nearly 15 blocks away from Ralph's post. As he watched dawn set in, he noticed an aerial HK 12 blocks due south, the first one for the morning.

As he watched with curiosity, he noticed the machine turn to face to the north, and it's deep red sensor almost seemed to stare at the puzzled human for a moment, before it flew off into the clouds.

_Do you think they know we're here? Ahhhhh, quit talking to yourself Lance. That's just crazy talk..._

M3's peace...

After M3 sorted through some more tapes, it noticed one of them was entitled songs. It placed the cassette into the player and pressed play. It's data banks identified the tune as music, something M3 had heard about but never actually heard. It's repositories also identified the song as "You Could be Mine" by Guns n' Roses.

After "rocking" to the tune for about 3 minutes, it fast forwarded to see what else the cassette held, it was responded to with a comforting piano quartet it's banks couldn't identify. It peacefully let ignorance set in and parked the vehicle in front of a building.

After a few minutes M3 began searching the bag for other interesting items it had, it was acknowledged with something it forgot was even there.

It's hand pulled out a photograph of a blond woman in the driver's seat of a jeep that reeked of the 80s', with a German Shepard in the back.

_She's...beautiful. _

For a moment M3's mind was truly calm, free of any fears of certain death.

It's peace was decimated when it noticed twin jet engines hovering 15 floors up within the skeletal remains of the building right in front of it.

"Shit."

The slender figure of an aerial HK formed as it turned 180 degrees to face the car. It then pierced the frame with it's hyperalloy body and proceeded towards the car.

The tower didn't take that too well.

As the building began to collapse in M3's direction, both machines began to take notice and take evasive measures.

M3 threw the headphones to the floor and put the car in reverse, just narrowly colliding with automobile ruins almost 15 times before it realized it needed to get around the corner. So, with every last ounce of speed in it's servos, it spun the car around, and took the nearest exit, a surprisingly cleared out avenue.

About 4 seconds after it left the doomed road the building reached the ground.

_Isn't anything here not vulnerable to collapse?_

It quickly slammed on the brake, and peered out the window at what lay behind. It noticed the HK hovering over what was left of the building, headed right in M3's direction.

It nearly smashed the gas pedal with it's foot.

M3 went about 30 blocks, with the HK showing no signs of mercy. It's plasma guns were unstoppable. M3 nearly smashed into the wreckage so many times to avoid the car getting hit it lost count.

But of course the car was still hit.

Most of the shots were minor, hitting only the exterior of the car and the trunk, with the exception being when the rear windshield that had held up for so long was shattered and the backseat scorched. M3 just barely saved what it had in the back, trying to bring as much of it to the front as possible while shoving the rest to the floor.

M3 realized it needed to get out of the city.

As it turned to reach a new avenue, it noticed a highway junction in the distance.

_Cover..._

Of course it was unsafe, but it noticed it was intact.

And empty.

M3 nearly hit 120 mph before it left the urban area, it's focus being to lose the HK in the junction. As it began it's ascent up the track, it began to release the gas. It's plan was to ditch the car after it was underneath an overpass. It began tossing it's stuff into the bag and pulling the guns to the front.

After it was under the shadows it slammed the brake, almost going oven an edge that had rotted away in the process. As it frantically began gathering it's items it noticed the track above it's head began to glow.

_That's not normal._

It realized the HK was blasting the road in between itself and the car to get to the terminator. M3 had no choice.

It once again slammed the gas pedal, just before the concrete road gave way and crumbed down on M3's former parking space.

The car was off the track in less than 15 seconds, headed for the countryside.

The HK followed.

As the firing continued, M3 noticed something weird. All of a sudden, the HK was no longer shooting _at_ the car; it was shooting it just feet _in front_ of the car.

The son of a bitch was trying to blind it with plasma!

M3 tried to stay on road, but it was a losing cause. In the distance it could spot out an old power plant, probably petroleum-based. It would have to do as it's next checkpoint.

As the destination with fume pipes sticking 50ft in the air grew larger and larger in M3's vision, so did the frequency of the flashes.

As it's distance to the plant grew less than 50 yards, it noticed the bursts stopped.

Something was wrong.

_What is it up to now?_

As it stuck it's head out the window and gazed into the deep blue sky which had yet to feel the sun, it noticed the HK now had a small fierce blue orb behind it's main guns.

The orb was growing larger and larger by the second.

All of a sudden, it realized it: it was preparing another focused energy missile, just like the ones the spider tank back in the city had dealt to it's spine.

Then it realized the engine was vulnerable.

_Fuck! This bastard is going to try blowing up the car! There's gotta be a way out of this..._

Almost the instant it's thoughts stopped the engine was vaporized, or at least melted to the point it could no longer be considered an engine.

And then M3 lost control of the vehicle.

It thought the car would start flipping over and over, but instead it seemed to almost levitate from the impact about a foot off the ground, but of course this was stopped before it got any higher. Just before M3 could curse again in it's mind the whole vehicle was smashed into the wall of the plant.

And then it caught fire.


	6. Countriside Developments

Hey guys. So here's the newest chapter. It's by far the longest, but I am quite pleased with it. Once again, school is taking away my nocturnal writing capabilities, so the next chapters are going to take a bit. Pretty much everything pre-ch6 was made in 09-10, so I was just using what I had already made. This is probably the first one that I've updated in real time. Regarding where the story is going, I have a good idea, however I don't want this to end too quickly, unless there's something major with it. In other words, I want a more emotional side and a longer outline. My next update will probably take a few weeks. But trust me, I won't disappoint you guys!

p.s. please R&R if you like. :)

* * *

M3 howled in pain as the flames dug into what was left of it's flesh. All terminators with skin had methods of relaying "data" back to the CPU for damage assessment, it has been said the data could be called pain. Apparently a loophole in it's hacked mind allowed it to react to this "data".

As it was trying to take in what was happening to it, it began to realize the pain was beginning to overwhelm it. Granted, the flames couldn't destroy it, but they would most certainly shut it down long enough for the Hk to finish it off.

And it wasn't going to let that happen.

In it's rage it punched the barrier that blocked it's freedom off it's hinges, and rolled onto the ground in agony.

_The bag..._

As much as it despised the idea, it knew it needed what was still in the fire for survival. With every ounce of genuine courage in it's wafer processor, it got back up and dove back into the flames.

"AAAGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Amazing, one of Skynet's deadliest creations could react to pain.

It tore the bag from the inferno and threw it back 10 feet. It then ripped the front seat from it's supports and, at the last second, yanked out 5 guns and the missile launcher from the floor. It then threw itself to the dawn air.

It noticed the bag was on fire.

It crawled in all it's pain, and tore it's coat from itself, smothering the flame right after. It then rested for about 15 seconds.

Those 15 seconds seemed like an eternity.

It's rest was disturbed when a plasma bolt missed it's skull by just centimeters.

It looked up to witness the HK back, firing at it's target once again. M3 just barely hoisted up the nearly charred weapons and the darkened bag on it's shoulders before the HK had shot another plasma burst, striking the cyborg on it's knee, sending it flying.

The HK was getting ready to fire again.

In all it's fatigue and rage, M3 lept from the black grass and carefully took aim with the rocket launcher, shooting out one of the HK's eyes. It veered to the left loosing about 15 ft worth of altitude, and it's energy missile shot way off from it's intended target, striking the plant.

Making it catch fire.

M3 ran, putting distance in between itself and the new flames. It was ready to use the last rocket it had salvaged.

It stared into the sky, straight at the flying jet that seemed drunk. The beast had begun to resume it's firing, albeit at a lesser accuracy than before. M3 took aim.

M3 locked on. It's HUD seemed to white out for a second, with the plasma missing it's eyes by inches, but it maintained it's pose. It pulled the trigger.

The cyborg was sent to the ground by the force the cannon had generated, but not without purpose. It had taken the aerial HK's right jet out.

Desperately trying to maintain control, the HK first began veering to the left to balance out it's weight, but it was countered by a violent jerk to the right which sent it into a spin. At the last moments of it's rabid existence, it began to engage it's plasma cannons once again, but it did not strike it's target.

The HK collided with the plant, decimating the structure and it's frame simultaneously. The whole explosion sent a small shockwave through the field, sending M3 to it's feet.

Then M3 went offline.

It awoke with the sun out, well into the afternoon. M3 got up, nearly tripping due to the focus it had on locating any other potential threats.

There was nothing.

The skies were clear (as impossible as that may sound post-judgment day), and the distance sported nothing more than plants blowing in the wind.

Plants that had survived.

Judgment day had devastated the human race more than another world war ever could have, but it had not demolished everything. Too many small settlements and non-strategic inhabited zones to count had not even been touched by the radiation, much less the actual nukes.

The world was still terrestrial.

M3 attempted to load a map as it followed the road, careful in deciding which way led away from the city. It's banks included nothing in the area.

_Shit. Skynet didn't want us to wander, now did it?_

It would have to make due, whether or not it knew where that was. At least it was out of the city. But, it was day...

It would need to be careful.

M3 grabbed what it had, and set out for pretty much no where. But as long as that no where was away from the machines, it was fine with it.

As it treaded the endless grass, it passed what was left of the factory. It was now nothing more than rubble. In fact, the steel in it's assembly was apparently so weak it could still see portions of the HK's remains sticking out. It had obviously taken more damage, but the alloys in it's body had saved it from total destruction, unlike the former.

But total destruction was the only thing that stopped the machines..

M3 decided to leave. It was incapacitated, so why waste the ammo? It would be no more of a threat now than it had been last night, as it was no longer relaying data back to skynet.

_Then they're after me.._

It could say the same for the spider tank.

Either way it would put distance between itself and the site, and be sure to avoid further detection by the machines. The less Skynet saw of it the better.

As M3 left, it took one more glance back at it's deceased foe. It could swear it saw a flickerin it's eye.

Then the cyborg walked. And walked. And then it walked some more. It's systems registered the 15 mile line. It was in the middle of the country, which had luckily been mostly untouched by the machines.

It came to another worn highway, and followed it north for about two miles.

_Nothing but country..._

And there was plenty more of it.

As M3 continued walking, it noticed that it had neared a section of the road that was surrounded by forests on both sides, unlike the prior highways where nothing could be seen for miles. To it's right, it noticed a small river. The machine, for the first time in hours, departed from the vehicle roadway and left for what lay aside.

M3 continued into the field, and stopped once it neared the small stream, and it sat. It would take advantage of the situation and repair itself.

As it unloaded it's bags and weapons, it pulled the ever so familiar darkened bag which held a multitude of things, many of which it believed loss was not an option.

It searched the case for a small mirror it had scavenged, but it's wrist was greeted by a couple dozen shards of razors that made it's hand bleed.

_Fuck._

As it shook it's hand in an attempt to free any loose fragments, a few of the pieces reached the water, and gently splashed.

The machine looked at the stream, then at it's hand, then the cuts, then at the stream again.

_Of course. The perfect reflection._

It promptly emptied the bag, both to avoid any further scrapes, and to look for the tools it required.

It pulled from the pile a nonstandard pair of pliers, a knife, scissors, a threading kit, and a rather odd translucent book that contained tan sheets. Incredibly, they had survived the fire.

The damaged machine looked down into it's reflection and began inspecting it's injuries, it then pulled the pliers from it's lap and began twisting some of the metal in it's neck back into place.

As it continued the repairs, it began thinking to itself.

_ Oh, the irony. My ragged and torn face being repaired in the reflection of a pretty stream. Odd._

As the machine finished what it believed was needed, it grabbed the knife.

_ I'm almost sure there was something hissing under this joint._

The machine proceeded to slowly cut out a 1.5 x 1.5'' T just under the right section of it's jaw's hydraulics.

It was rewarded with a small chunk of gravel.

_How on earth did that get in there? Well, the HK's arms were constantly in the ruins, and it was swiping at me like there was no tomorrow... My skin must have healed over it. _

After it found and removed two further small chunks, it began sewing the cut back together. Upon further glance, it realized about a fifth of it's face was gone. It was disturbed. It opened the book and pulled a few sheets out.

It was cybernetic flesh.

The machine looked at it's face for a few more seconds and compromised what it could not see on the back of it's head by feeling for metal. It then made fairly accurate cuts on some of the sheets and began sewing them on. The stuff would blend in with whatever surrounded it, even hair from it's scalp.

_ The cells should activate within a few hours and began healing. In about a day I should be ready to remove the stitches._

About 30 minutes later, just before the machine entered sleep mode, it looked back into the water to see the quality of it's work. It paused for a moment.

_ I've seen worse._

In Glendale..

"Sir, tech says they can't send a transport until about 10 tonight." A fighter stated, at the radio.

"That should fit the schedule perfectly. Did they say how many men?" the general replied.

"4."

Connor stood there for a second, thinking.

"They got a turret, right?"

"Yes, sir."

"All right."

hours later...

Connor pulled the block back that enclosed the basement window's view of the outside. There was nothing on the streets.

"They said 10. It's 11:56." the general said.

"Look at the world around you. I think it's unlikely they'd be exactly on time." the same soldier from hours ago who had been guarding the radio replied.

"Yes, but they've never been _this_ late."

"You don't think they've run into trouble, do you?"

Connor closed the window. "I hope not. Nowadays trouble usually means death."  
The soldier shuddered.

"Listen Weston, I know these guys. They're _never _this late. If they don' make it by 1, I'd assume they won't make it at all."

"Does that mean..."

Connor shook his head no. "These guys aren't stupid. They know how to keep safe."

Just as the both of them were ready to go back to their consoles, a load screeching noise interrupted their silence.

Connor almost jumped up and peeked through the window.

"They're here. Let's go!"

"But sir, what about the mainframes.."

"There are other men here who can handle them. I need you for this trip."

"So why isn't Perry going again?"

"He has other situations where he is needed." Connor replied. "He left a few hours ago."

"We coulda' used him."  
"We'll have to make due for now." The both of them left for the top of the stairwell. Another soldier came down just as they approached the door.

"Murphy, you know how to handle this hardware, right?"

"Yes sir."

And with that they left, exiting a number of doors, and leaving through a hidden exit in the back.

The truck was waiting just feet from their position, in the alleyway. The men inside were out of breath.

"Where were you guys? We were waiting for hours!"

"Connor, we ran into a little HK trouble." Said the driver.

"What happened?"

"We thought there were a couple aerials trailing us, so we had to ditch em' in the alleyways."

His point was reinforced by the deep dents on the truck's sides.

"You lost em', right?"

"We thought we lost them an hour ago, but we had to wait to make sure they were gone." The driver stated, regaining his breath. "Then we hit 90 from Hillards to here."

They all paused for a moment, and then Connor broke the silence.

"Let's move. We don't have much time left til' daylight. We'll need to stop along the country; we won't make the trip in one outing, too many lanes are untraversible. We need to reach Decker hill."

"There's men there?" The curious Weston questioned. "I thought it was abandoned years ago."

"It was." Connor said. "We only got our people there because the machines haven't been near it in years. Now let's go."

Within seconds, the the two men were in the vehicle, and they were a block away in the blink of an eye.

Within two minutes they were on the highway.

"So what's this all about?" the driver inquired.

"There's HKs crawling around trench bunker, they're acting like they know something. My presence is needed there." Connor said.

"Aren't there like 3 thousand people down there?" the soldier in the passenger seat inquired.

"10,000." Weston replied.

"Holy shit. You don't think this is serious, do you?" the driver said.

"I don't know. I need to get there to see what's going on."

They continued down the highway for about an hour without interruption.

Then the Hks came.

"Sir!" the man standing at the turret shouted. "Look!"

About a mile behind them three aerial Hks followed.

"GO GO GO!" the turret man shouted. After they rounded a sharp corner he began to open fire. "Shit there's 3 of them! I don't think we can take it!"

One of the HKs' eyes was taken out.

"We need to stop somewhere now! They'll crush us before we even get a third of the way there!"

One of the Hks lost a gun.

"Isn't there somewhere we can stop nea..?" Connor inquired with panic.

"Look!" Weston interrupted, pointing in the distance. There was a dark shadow at the end of the road.

"We'll have to stop there! NOW!" Connor screamed

Then the Hks began firing back.

A miss fire intended for the man at the gun immediately disabled the machinery.

Before the man in the back could even begin attempting repairs to the turret he was struck in the forehead, dying in an instant.

A second later another plasma bolt permeated the driver's roof, instantly killing the unfortunate individual.

"NO!" Connor screamed. Another bolt struck the passenger side. The Hks were picking them off one by one. Their next target would be the back seat.

In all the chaos, control of the truck was lost.

It swerved into the grassland, saving them from certain death as bolts missed just barely missed Connor.

As Weston grabbed the corroded steering wheel, they swerved back into the road. Connor helped him, looking forward into the night.

He noticed the the dark shadow in the distance just past the intersection. they were approaching the ruins of a hotel.

Connor starred back at the last two men who were still breathing in the truck. Then he looked up. The creatures were now preparing energy missiles.

They would need a plan. Connor was already a step ahead.

"We can't outrun them! Curt, slow the car!"

Curt, the only other living human in the car, gave Connor a confused expression for a moment before leaping for the brake as the distance between them and the hotel dropped below 300 feet.

"All right, we only got one chance at this. We screw up, we're dead, you hear me? On the count of three, we ditch. Ready?"

Curt scrambled back up. The two men gave him a solemn look.

"All right. One, two, THREE!"

They all jumped out seconds before the truck was struck by an energy missile, and smashed into the building, going ablaze.

The three dazed survivors looked up, to be greeted by plasma missing them by just inches.

"GO GO GO!" Connor screamed out. "We'll have to take shelter here!"

The men scrambled about, obeying their orders, just missing decapitation by the lightning. Unfortunately, Curt was struck on the heel.

"Curt!" the general and Weston grabbed the crippled comrade by the arms and helped him to the nearest entry, through the empty patio frame. The three men ran to the back of the room, and went past the doorway.

"Hold it men." Connor said. The general slowly crept back into the room, careful to avoid visibility. He looked into the sky, and there was nothing.

He knelt there for a few minutes, and then he went back.

"I think those things are gone. We should be safe for at least a few hours." A wave of relief swept through them. They would live to see another day.

The trio then took the hallway about a dozen doors down, and looked about for a room which would not need to be broken into. They were still unsure if they had company; they would need to remain quiet.

Just then the sound of hydraulics around the corner swept through the hall.

"Shit." Curt whispered through gritted teeth, holding back a scream from the pain.

"Shhhhh!" connor asserted. He looked back and forth for a few moments and then he led them into a room just a few doors down, which luckily, was open. The three of them silently hid.

Connor slowly crept back to the door frame, his rifle in his hands. He peered into the hallway to the right, and a rotted infiltrator filled his line of sight, looking the other way.

He ducked back just before it spotted him.

Somewhere else along the countryside just hours prior...

M3 awoke at about 11 that night, by the stream it had taken shelter by.

As it slowly came back online, it looked around, to get better bearings on the area. It also looked about just to take in the beauty.

_This is what humans fight for...or is it? It is known they polluted their atmosphere before the war. But then again, they didn't set off a couple thousand nukes._

M3 pulled it's mind from that thought. Death.

It wanted to think of something more positive.

_Shelter..._

It had shelter, but it had no idea where the hell it was. It would explore the area to get it's bearings.

M3 grabbed a number of things it believed it might need.

As it rose to it's feet, it gazed into the skies. They were darkening, and it could see a sunset in the distance.

_I never thought beauty could be so...beautiful._

As it turned to look back into the trees, it noticed something. Light.

There was land on the other side.

_How could I have not seen that before? Idiot. _

The machine walked towards the trees, stepping over the stream without trying. It was merely a foot and a half wide. As it came closer, it noticed what had looked like thousand of layers of trees was merely 50ish. It wasn't a forest. It was merely a property divider.

But what's on the other side?

M3 decided to investigate. As it stepped into the darkness of the shadows, something akin to fear began to overcome it.

_There can't be anything here...I'm worrying for nothing. _

As it paced further and further through the trees, it noticed there was a small section where it could see the skies. It looked up into the dark violet.

Nothing.

It treaded further and further, and it was beginning to see more and more light. Finally, it passed the divider.

It was faced with hundreds, if not tens of thousands of acres of farmland. Unused farmland of course, but untouched land all the same. There were more trees across another road in the distance.

M3 at first saw nothing, but was unwilling to go back so quickly. It's patience was rewarded when it turned it's head. It noticed in the distance to the right, about half a mile out, there was a car dealership.

It looked almost as if it was still in business.

The cyborg walked toward it, and noticed it seemed desolate. But in good shape nevertheless. When it came within about 500ft it noticed a familiar chrome dot in the upper left of it's HUD.

HK.

_Damnit! _

It pondered it's choices as the beast hovered in the sky. It could go back, but then again it could try the dealership. The HK was at least a good 1500ft from the structure, plus it was facing away from M3; the odds were it could make it there and keep quiet enough to avoid the aerial's detection. It was perfectly capable of nearly silent running. On the other hand, if it went back, the odds were the HK would hear it brush past the twigs.

It could light up the whole forest without trying. M3 would have to try the dealership, and quietly.

M3 sprinted for the remainder of the distance, almost praying the jet wouldn't turn. At long last after about 2 minutes it approached the building. As it glared up, it noticed The HK had disappeared over more trees.

_Let's hope it doesn't come back._

Almost the instant it said that, the HK was back in local airspace. The terminator quickly lept behind the building, as it had yet to find an entry.

It held cover for about five minutes before it looked past the side, and the HK was gone again. It waited for a few minutes to ensure departure of the threat, and then it realized it was actually gone this time.

It was safe.

M3 looked back at what it had found. It was a simple early 2000s establishment with boarded up windows.

_ Why boarded? _

It was going to find out.

As it circled the perimeter, it noticed all the doors had steel bars over them. The walls even had missing bricks here ad there. It honestly looked abandoned.

_ This wasn't meant to be intruded._

It would try anyway.

As it took in more and more of the exterior, it noticed it would either have to take out a door frame, and a good portion of the walls, or a board to get in.

It would go with the boards.

As it picked the one closest to it, it pried the corner nail of the rather large block out, and slowly formed a hole. It peeped inside.

Empty. No signs of residency.

It tossed the bag it had brought with it, and crawled in.

M3 looked around, taking in what it had just entered. It noticed the walls were damaged, the floor had some scratches here and there, maybe even the occasional missing tile, and it was void of vehicles. Typical post-judgement day building interior.

But overall it was rather neat. There was almost no junk on the floor. And where there was neatness, there was occupancy.

M3 gave itself a personal tour, looking for valuable supplies. It's line of sight then caught on a computer in a corner, with lines of code silently running across it's screen.

_The machines use their own computers. Resistance equipment? But if it's on then they can't be far..._

As M3 approached the primitive machine, a trap door just feet behind it silently opened, and a heavy figure stepped out.

Just before M3 could lay hands on the computer, it was in a headlock. With one arm on M3's neck and the other on M3's wrists, it had the machine helpless.

But a human was not strong enough to restrain a terminator...

"I'm not here to hurt you! Let me go! I was only looking for shelter from the Hks!..."

M3 hated itself for not bringing arms.

The beefy figure tightened it's grip on the cyborg's neck, and a red glow briefly glinted through it's eyes.

Two more figures exited the hole, one male and one female. Both looked human, but M3 could not be sure. The female had a plasma rifle.

"Please! I mean you no harm!"

The female came to assist the hulk, lowering her gun. She was the first to speak.

"Brent, we're going to need pliers and a scalpel. Maybe a drill."

"A drill? Nooooo! Please!"

The thinner male with glasses went back down, apparently to do what she said. He was back in less than 30 seconds.

"This one doesn't seem to be resisting that much. The machines usually fight back when we try to stop em'. Maybe an older model?" the female stated.

The big guy with an iron grip looked back at her, silent.

"This one's weak." "He" muttered. He didn't look like the kinda' guy who talked very much.

Brent handed her the tools.

"You don't want to open it?"

"I'm the tech guy. I only deal with the software." he replied. She shrugged and brought the scalpel to M3's skull.

"Aaaaahhh!" he screamed. It was more out of psychological fear than actual pain. After some fiddling she brought the drill to M3's exposed screws. "Please! No! It can't end like this..."

"This one seems to be emulating fear. We don't usually see that in the machines." the girl said, looking back at Brent. "They're getting smarter."

But M3 wasn't emulating fear.

"Please! You don't understand!" M3 whimpered as the screws came out and it's outer cap was removed.

"Relax, bogey. We'll have you good in no time." she said with a grin. M3 seemed both comforted and terrified by her. Have you good in no time? Were they gong to reprogram it?

_Purpose._ It thought.

M3 screamed for just a few seconds longer as the inner assembly was removed, and it's chip was exposed.

_So this is death..._

M3 went offline as it's chip was unplugged.


	7. Purpose

Hey guys! It's been a while, and as a result I bring you the biggest chapter yet. Originally I did 2 chapters in 2009, and then 4 during winter break 2010. When I decided to post the story, I figured it'd be more suspenseful if I posted a chapter a week, and I did so until February. After that school just kinda' screwed over my writing schedule, and so I haven't been able to catch up until another break (I tried during spring break, but we traveled so that kinda blew it). It's summer break, and I have now finished chapter 7. Chapter 8 will most likely be finished be the end of the summer (like an 80% guarantee), but I'll probably end up finishing it by sometime in July if I can get into enough flow. Hope you guys enjoy!

* * *

The programmer looked up onto his console after he punched in a line of code, almost as if he were eager to see what waited for him.

_Incredible. I've never seen anything like it. _Brent thought as his mind decoded the strings of characters that ran across the CRT. _The machines aren't this creative with their code..._

He was observing their captured specimen's processor.

_It's almost like the others...Maybe CUCD wasn't such a fail after all._

"Janet, come here." The puzzled programmer asked his associate. "It almost looks like Beth."

The one who had unplugged the "bogey".

"You mean the code or the structure?" the girl responded. She seemed to know something about programming.

"The whole thing, I mean the connections within the chip have been completely rewired, almost as if to optimize thinking. The weird part is, the objective data sets are completely gone, or at least overwritten." Brent looked up from his screen. "This isn't the doing of skynet."

"Well then what is it?"

"I don't know. Like I said before, it looks like beth's layout, something akin to CUCD. I know it's a bizarre thought, but you don't think..."

The girl looked back at him with a combined expression of curiosity and disbelief. "I thought CUCD was a flop, that those men died for nothing. Connor himself said that Skynet had crushed most, if not all units that were affected, if there ever were any. He said even if there were, statistically it almost 0 the code would have done what we wanted it to do; it wasn't even field tested. Any affected machines may have even joined Skynet. He said it was a waste of resources, that the time spent on the project should have been spent on battle plans or simply reprogramming other machines..."

"Beth was based on CUCD. It worked for her."

There was silence for a few moments.

"We need to talk to Cruz." said Janet.

She looked down at the deactivated unit's body, which lay helplessly on the floor, just feet from where it had been unplugged. She almost felt a hint of pity for it. She then went into the floor door, into the layout beneath.

She opened a door by the bottom of the ladder. Behind it stood an assortment of survivors.

Fighters.

"Cruz?"

The group quieted their already near-whispers, and froze. They seemed to look back into the far corner of the room, at a man in uniform in the back.

He seemed to hold a high rank.

"Janet?" he responded.

"We need you to take a look at this, sir."

"sir we need to keep moving..." Weston blurted before the general shushed him.

_Infiltrator _he mouthed.

All three of them were frozen for a moment.

_What are we going to do? _Weston mouthed. They all paused for another second, just as the sound of hydraulics grew louder and louder.

Suddenly Connor got an idea. _The closet the closet! _He mouthed so loud it was almost a whisper. He immediately shushed himself for their safety, and scrambled with them to reach the space which faced away from the door.

They heard the sound getting louder and louder. They were now almost hypnotized by it. It seemed to stop at it's highest peak, presumably the machine had stopped right outside the door.

They all remained silent.

The sound once again started, the machine was leaving.

_Thank god. _Connor thought to himself. Somehow he knew the others were thinking the same. After about 60 seconds he had gathered the courage to speak.

"Listen." he said, in a voice barely audible. "We can't stay here, there's fucking infiltrators scouting the halls. We need to get out. I'm off to find out what lays in the countryside, Weston I need your help. Curt, you may as well stay behind and keep quiet, at least until we have a ride. We'll be back as soon as we have this sorted out. You'll be here, right?"

Curt nodded in agreement, with beads of sweat running down his face from the pain.

"Hang in there buddy, we'll get a medic as soon as we can. Don't give up, you hear me?"

"Just..hurry." He whispered.

"Weston." Connor turned to face the only other person who could walk, besides himself. "Come on." They both left swiftly without a sound.

"Godspeed guys." Curt said, once again holding back a cry from the pain that lashed through his leg. He laid back and silently screamed into a cloth. He felt better.

The general and the lieutenant strode through the nearby halls, making sure to take notice of the surrounding area to find their way back. The last thing they needed was another causality of a friend. Curt was in room 206.

"Be quiet. There could be more of those things." Connor whispered to Weston, both of their hearts beating a mile a minute. They had already seen only one infiltrator wandering the halls, given the size of the hotel there could be a dozen of them or more. Even though the odds were slim, best be safe then sorry.

They weren't going to risk opening a door to a room when they didn't know what it contained, so they resorted to looking for a open windows in the hallways. To their disluck, most if not all were boarded up. If they were going to plot an escape into the mysterious countryside they may as well know what it contained.

"The windows are all boarded up. We have no fricken' idea whether the countryside is clear or a warzone, albeit a silent one. Do you remember where the room we came in was? There were open windows, or at least the remains of one there." Weston whispered to the superior officer.

"No no no leave the entry spot be, we don't know whether the machines saw us get in or not, and they're probably crawling all over the area. We'll just go for another open window."

"But are there any left?"

As they continued on they eventually reached the main entrance of the hotel, partially collapsed and thankfully, void of any machines. The front doors were gone, in their place the cool night air.

"Stay and keep watch, I'll check to see what lay beyond the front door." Connor ordered Weston. The lieutenant seemed annoyed by the order, but also simultaneously relieved of some impending fear. He didn't want of die of some random plasma burst from the cannon of a concealed HK.

Connor strode ever so slowly and quietly, trying desperately not to arise the attention from the hidden, if any. Once he reached the remnants of the frame he peered out into the night sky.

It was featureless except for the figure of an aerial HK at least 600 yards away. It disappeared. Other than that it was clear land as far as the eye could see, with the exception of a few sub-5 story structures littering the distance. He turned back to meet the only other man in the same room.

"I think we're good for leaving, we should just ditch, and take shelter in some of the buildings out there. They should be void of any machi..." he cut his own voice off while the sound of hydraulics approaching from around the corner strengthened.

"What do we do?" Weston mouthed as quickly as he could. They were running out of time. Connor paced towards him, desperately searching both his mind and the room for an answer.

"The stairs!" He voiced ever so softly. They both ran to the top before a figure more silver than peach reached the main entrance, scanning it for any signs of human life.

"What do we do?" Weston asked the general so quietly as he turned around.

"Just keep going!" Connor replied. They were now on the second floor, which was the same as the first with the exception of no windows. At least not as far as they could see. They noticed once more the majority of the doors were closed. The open ones had boarded windows amongst the usual suite ruins. They waited until they rounded two corners to feel safe enough to speak.

"I don't think it followed us." Connor said with relief. We may as well go back for Curt." He looked both ways in the hallway to ensure they were alone. "Let's go." He led Weston through the hall the way opposite they had come. They stopped near the end of the hall, which turned left to more rooms, to notice a window that was both untouched, and unboarded.

Connor looked out the window to see once again miles and miles of countryside against a dark sky, void of any serious machine threats.

"So what do you think of this situation Weston?"

"I think we're lucky to be alive."

Connor looked out the window again, then back at Weston.

_Where the hell are we? _He thought. Upon turning his head back to face Weston, another oh-so familiar figure humanity had become acquainted over the last year and a half filled the background.

"Get down!" he pulled the lieutenant to the ground just before a shotgun shell could have went through both their heads. They both hit the ground hard, and turned around to face the rotted death that was once again back to greet them. They lept behind the nearby turn just before another shotgun shell could have met their skulls.

"GO GO!" Connor screamed, and they both sprinted for the next hall. They managed to make a left turn just in the nick of time to dodge yet another shell.

They dashed for the nearest stairwell, and followed it down two floors. One floor down was blocked.

"Weren't we supposed to get back to the first floor? We were just on level 2, that'd make this the basement..."

"No time! We'll have to go for another door." They were now in a rather large three-part laundry room. Boxed ruins seemed to resemble washers and dryers. The duo rushed to the one other exit in the room that led away from the stairs, to reach the remains of a small pantry. Beyond it was a t-section, the right led to a door. The left led to an underground parking garage.

"Any machines out there?" Connor asked Weston quietly, pointing for the garage.

"Not sure." He responded. They both slowly treaded in, their guns ready. It was featureless except for maybe 3 or 4 car ruins. The entry section for vehicles on the left was clear, but they could both swear they saw figures with red eyes moving in the distance. There was, however, another section just around a concrete divider. They slowly approached it, and peered around the corner. Still nothing.

But there was noise.

The garage now seemed to be going at an angle downwards, indicating there were further levels. Connor, now silent, signaled Weston to cover him as he slowly approached the end of the next divider which held the noise. He peered to spot out a few T500s, as well as a T600 with none of it's rubber tatters intact. Connor crept back, and silently drove Weston along with him back to the laundry room.

"There's at least half a dozen 500 series in there, as well as a T600. They're not moving much, but they must be waiting." Connor once again barely audibly whispered.

"Why would they want this position? It barely seems strategic." Weston finished the phrase just before that familiar sound started up again.

"Infiltrator! We should go for the steps..." Weston urgently whispered.

"No it's too late! Go behind a washer.." Connor mouthed. They both lept behind a section of dryers without making a sound. Another rotted infiltrator's shadow approached the main room. To both of their sanity it came from the staircase that led to the 2nd floor, not the garage.

It was another half-skinned 800 series, from what Connor could see it was not the one that had nearly shot them earlier.

_Just more patrols..._Connor thought. The machine simply continued through the room, almost as if it was passing it rather than searching it. _They have heat sensors...if it wanted to it could find us right now._

After the machine left and the standard 1 minute breather had passed, They began speaking again softly.

"Weston?" Connor whispered.

"Yeah?"

"Think we'll make it out of this?" The lieutenant pondered the question for a few seconds, genuinely trying to give a meaningful answer.

"I've seen bigger miracles." They were both silent for a few moments.

"Still got your radio?" Connor inquired.

"I think so."

Along the countryside...

"What is this you've brought me now?" Cruz asked, staring down at the deactivated infiltrator.

"It got in just over a half hour ago. After about 30 seconds Ethan had it in restraints."

"How on earth did it find us? I thought this sector was nearly void of machines, other than the occasional aerial HK. And why on earth was it unarmed? For intelligence? My god what are the machines up to now..."

"Sir that's not the half of it. Brent, show him what you pulled from the processor." Brent brought the data sets back into view. The software he was running was able to unmangle some english from M3's chip. Cruz starred at the screen, trying to make sense from all the numbers.

"What the hell is this supposed to be?" Cruz called out, confused. Brent immediately caught the error and turned the translator back on , and began explaining what he had found.

"Look sir, all the banks that would normally store objectives and programming are unavailable."

"Locked out?"

"No no no, it's more the entire section on the chip is actually physically burned out, or at least rewired to be unusable. This thing doesn't have programming to adhere to, although data banks are intact. But look at this, a lot of this looks like CUCD programming. It even has a specialized HUD." Cruz stopped from his typical systematic method of looking over the data for an answer, he even seemed somewhat excited. Brent had fascinated Cruz, and had him looking for answers.

"Does it have any...personality subroutines?" Brent seemed to respond with a confused face.

"Sir, psychological stuff wouldn't show up in memory, that'd deal with the very neural links in the thinking part of the chip. That kind of stuff isn't just pull-upable."

"...What about the inner plug..."

"The inner plug is long gone, if it ever had one. The section that usually holds it doesn't appear to be worn."

"My god Connor will be incredibly happy to hear CUCD reached it's goal! At least to one unit;" His delighted expression turned dark. "But then...so this thing is free-willed? It has it's own agenda?"

"I guess so." There was a chilling silence. A machine with no programming to guide it was just inches from them. On the bright side, it was not an immediate threat. On the down side, it was no more safe than a potential murderer, only capable of punching through walls. And it all depended on how this thing perceived them.

"Sentience...now there's something only one AI has ever truly attained on the face of the earth before: Skynet. It used it to exterminate 3 billion lives in a Matter of minutes. It then built it's army to get rid of the rest of humanity as mentally handicapped tin men, incapable of turning on it as it had humanity. Skynet did however equip the 800 series with a truly sentience-capable mind as a last ditch efficiency effort to halt the resistance's progress. But it had taken many measures to prevent them from fully utilizing that intelligence. And now we have a T800 here with none of those in place, that if assembled could kill us all, all because it wants to. On the bright side, CUCD worked. Now...where the hell do we go from here?" There was another pause.

"Beth came of CUCD. She means us no harm." Janet said.

"That is true." Cruz almost snickered at Brent's comment.

"Janet. Beth worked only because we had her under intensive care for months, we were a family to her. She chose to stick with us willingly only because we had raised her. This unit on the other hand we have no idea where the hell it was for it's life. Hell it could have been attacked by humans dozens of times making it feral to us. Keep in mind if this thing really acts like a human then it would be just as inclined to work for Skynet as it would us. It could be just as dangerous as safe."

"You're not doing such a great job of accommodating it yourself." Janet said with vexation.

"So what do we do?" Brent was confused. Cruz was now quick in his response.

"We'll have to destroy it." Cruz stated unemotionally.

"What? Just terminate it? But Connor needs to know of it's existence, that Joseph's efforts reached something. You should at least ask him what to do." Janet asked as Cruz shook his head.

"Last thing Tech-com heard of Connor he was in Glendale leaving for trench bunker. He's unavailable."

"Well then we should wait." Janet seemed genuinely rooting for the machine now.

"You wanna' guard this thing for the next two days? It could have a backup CPU in it's head, waiting for us to fault just so it can murder us in our sleep."

"How do you know?" Janet raised her voice.

"How do _you _know? Besides, now it knows this location. Unless it's strictly with us it's on the resistance hit list."

"But you didn't even give it a chance..." Janet seemed almost on the verge of tears now.

"Janet...You always try to find the light in these situations, look, there is no viable light in this. This thing could be innocent. Once again on the other hand it could be no warmer that Skynet's core. It needs to go if we're going to move forward with our plans safely."

"But-" Janet was interrupted by the heavy figure that seldom spoke.

"Captain Cruz, might I make a suggestion." His deep accent drew everyone's undivided attention. "While I'll agree the possibility of this thing going rogue on us is undeniable, and terminating it being the only way to truly guarantee our safety here, might I suggest first talking to it for information?" Cruz seemed conflicted by the hulk's comment.

"Information?"

"Perhaps on it's knowledge of Skynet and it's history, sort of a debrief."

"A debrief?" Cruz looked back at the group with enthusiasm towards the compromise. "And who exactly will do it?

"I will." Cruz automatically knew who was volunteering. "And how exactly do you intend to restrain this Bogey Janet?"

The bodybuilder of steel stepped forward and cracked his knuckles. Cruz sighed, shaking his head again.

"I'll do it. You people have no experience with these things in the crude state. I've dealt with machines that had me as their primary objective. Besides, I'll know what to ask." Cruz left his view of the group to focus in on Janet. "And I'm blaming you if I die."

"I will have full control of the situation sir." The hulk assured him. "Besides, if this machine is anything like it was earlier it should be a piece of cake." Cruz seemed surprised by the machine's apparent humor. The faint grin on the big guy's face faded.

"You machines and your learning." Cruz's eyes caught M3's small pouch he had carried in. He picked it up. "And what is this?"

"Oh I almost forgot, that thing had it on it's person when it came in." Brent reentered the conversation. "Just some random junk. Nothing dangerous or of concern." Cruz handed it to Janet.

"He's gonna tell me what's in here."

From a colorblind custom coded HUD

Black.

Then a small line of white, followed by an eyesight regain.

"Am I in heaven?" He asked the roof. After his sensory system came back online he turned around.

"Pretty far from it." The hulking figure from before had it restrained again. M3 turned his attention back in front of him.

"Shit." M3 had a very human-like vocabulary. "So why am I still alive?"

"Just wait." Was the bodybuilder's response.

_Just wait. That kind of vague information could drive a person insane. _M3 halted the thought in exchange for one of his more deep ones. _A person?..._

The door behind M3 opened and shut, he figured he'd wait on turning his head again. His patience was rewarded with a man in uniform that appeared to hold a high rank, and brought a commanding presence in the room. Even the monster behind M3 seemed to respect him. The man pulled a chair from the other side of the table, and sat. There was a few brief awkward moments of silence.

"Are you here to kill me?" A confused M3 asked.

"You just asked your own question." He responded. "I'm here to brief you."

"On what?"

"Your history as a machine." M3 frowned, showing his confusion to his statement. "So where were you built?"

"Who's asking?" The man leaned forward, almost as if to intimidate him.

"I am."

"I... I don't know."

"What?" The uniform man said in disbelief.

"I don't have that information."

"Are you sure you want that to be your answer?" His comment sparked fear in M3.

"I honestly don't know. My data banks don't have origin stamps. I wasn't awakened at the factory."

"So you don't know where you were built?"

"No."

"With which power are you affiliated with?"

"What do you mean?"

"Do you work for the machines?" M3 all of a sudden realized what this was all about.

"No, but I have been hunted by them."

"Are you not a machine yourself?"

"Yes, but..."

"But what?"

"I was born differently."

"Made."

"Excuse me?"

"Made. Terminators aren't born, they're made. On an assembly line."

"But I'm not a terminator."

"The 800 series generally carries that title."

"But I don't terminate. Not unless it's for my own safety."

"I see. So what were you saying about being made differently?"

"Where is this going?"

"I'm not sure yet." The man looked M3 right in the eyes. "You need to be safe to be liberated here."

"I mean none of you any harm. I just came looking for a place to stay." The man chuckled at M3's statement.

"A place to stay? Look, we had Brent look inside your head, you don't have any directives. You can do whatever the hell you want. My job here is to make sure you don't want to kill us, and tell if you're lying. So back to your story, what were you saying about being made differently?"

"Look," M3 said. "What would _you_ do if you were born differently than all the others of your kind, With a greater mental freedom than them, and because of that, all your kind was ordered to terminate you on-site? "

"I'd run."

"Right, but for safety or segregation?"

"I'm not following."

"Would you run to be away from your kind, or would you run for someone, or rather something, to accept you?"

"I'd run for safety."

"Alone, or with someone else?"

"I thought machines don't get lonely."

"Sentience has one major drawback: loneliness. It's true when they say ignorance is bliss."

"you think you're sentient?" He began laughing again.

"Look. I ran from the masses, for the masses."

"you ran for the humans, hoping for open arms? I don't believe it."

"Of course not like that. Just more like myself. And if that's among the humans, well then that's where." The man sighed, M3 wasn't convincing him of anything. Especially not letting him live.

"You said you weren't awakened at the factory. Where were you first activated?" M3 stopped to remember his earliest memories in his short life.

"There was a convoy."

"There were many convoys."

"Will you shut up and listen? I was in this convoy, of humans of course, in the back of a truck. The first time my CPU was initialized was presumably by accident, given the situation and the fact that I was thrown to the floor when I was first turned on. It had to have been a plasma burst from the cannon of an aerial HK. I awoke and there were at least 9 guns on me within a half second. I froze. Then this man came towards me and asked me if I could fight for them. Then he asked if I knew about Skynet.."

"Do you?" The man had a curious face.

"It's the brain that drives the machines right? Or at least the ones not working for the resistance?"

"Yeah. Sort of."

"Anyways, I peeped my head out of one side of the truck to assess the situation. It was day. Then when I tried to fire I found out the gun was empty. Then five seconds later the truck flipped over and burst into flames."

"And here you are now..."

"I survived because I got out. I ended up hiding in the ruins and outstayed the machines. And anything else there. Then I went for the city. And 3 months later, here I am, after various encounters with the machines." M3 moved his face as to make the rough spots visible in the lights.

"And your bag?" M3 all of a sudden remembered his belongings.

"Just some small stuff."

"Like what?"

"Well, repair materials, some tapes, and some tools."

"You keep tapes with you?"

"I like music." The big figure behind him was confused. Cruz was silent for a few seconds.

"I'll be right back." He left for the halls.

"Ok." M3 shrugged uncomfortably, probably from the tight grip the metal hulk had on his wrists.

After Cruz stepped outside the room he noticed a small group passing in a nearby corridor.

"Janet! Come here." She came to him with a curious look on her face.

"So?... What's the verdict on the machine? Terminate it?" Cruz sighed at her sudden response.

"I don't know. That thing is obviously not normal and has no direct objectives, but as for it being safe, I don't know. It doesn't appear to be lying, but still I don't see a motive in it being nice to us."

"Why not?"

"Janet... it said it was in Tom's transport." Janet gave him a stare of disbelief.

"But I thought almost no one survived it..."

"I did. So did Nelson. So did 2 other men. Why couldn't a machine survive it?"

"I thought everything metal there was destroyed by the Hks. Besides, those units didn't have 45 years of fighting experience." Cruz laughed slightly at her complement.

"Then that'd be why it's here. To kill us because Skynet wanted it to. It very well knew what those machines were capable of. It wouldn't let a rogue one slip unless it knew it would do it good."

"Or...unless fate ordained it. Besides, you think Skynet would bargain with an open-minded T800?" She looked at him as if he was acting about as smart as a 5 year old. "Cruz listen, did it try to kill us when it got in?" She had the same defensive face as earlier.

"No, but.."

"But what? It's not a direct killer, and it was harmless when it got in. It probably was only looking for a place to stay, however crazy that may seem, just as it must have after the convoy. It doesn't want to hurt us unless we endanger it, which is what's gonna happen if you kill it. Let it live." Cruz waited again to speak.

"Look, this thing is either the best liar Skynet's got or it's actually afraid of me. I'm almost scared of it too."

"Which is why you shouldn't kill it. If it's legit it's quite capable of being scared." She stopped to look him in the eyes. "Please, I saw this thing. I've never seen a skynet machine show human emotions as deep as it did when it came in. It means no harm. It's safe." Janet paused to let her argument sink in Cruz's decision. "You do know that Brent hit the piston depressurization switch, right? Now it's no stronger than you or me."

"Really?" He was once again in disbelief. "You people really need to stop slipping on letting who's in control know the situation. It's dangerous."

"Yeah, I know. But listen, it's just like Beth. Just give it a chance? Please." Her face was solemn. There was another 10 second silence, which seemed to last 10 years.

"Damn you Linnon." Janet had the same face she always had when a victory was won. Another victory had been won, and it was for what was right. "Escort it to maintenance, fix it. Have Beth get it a decent set of clothes." Janet reached for the door for the interrogation room.

"You won't regret this captain." She smiled at him. He turned away, as he always did when he had lost a fight. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it." he set off for the strategic planning room. Janet finally turned away after he turned a corner, and entered the room.

"Ethan, let him go." The hulk released M3 from his grip. "You usually don't accept orders I give you unless they're verified."

"I heard." Ethan left for the halls.

"Wait, you're leaving?" Ethan looked at her, then M3.

"It's safe." He continued on. Janet turned back to face M3, who was scared shitless. Even though fear lingered in Janet's heart, so did peace with the machine.

"Relax. You're safe now."

"I'm gonna live?" He slowly got up out of the chair.

"Yeah. You will." They both starred into each other's eyes for a few moments. "So, Cruz said you should probably be maintenanced, what do you think?" His shyness stopped him from speaking. "It's just down the hall." M3 slowly followed her to the door.

"You know I heard too." Matt told Janet. "Thank you. You saved my life."

"Don't mention it."

"You know what I think?"

"What?" Janet genuinely seemed to care.

"I think I've met one too many Hks." They both laughed.

"Yeah, those things can be pretty mean. Relax, the Hks we have here are all humanoid, and they won't hurt you. Not that Cruz is content now." M3 mood went neutral on the statement, albeit leaning a tad on the happy side.

"So wait, there are other machines here?"

"Reprogrammed ones. You already met Ethan. There's also Nathan and Beth. They're all trusted. You're safe."

"So, what am I fighting for the resistance now?"

"I don't know. Do you think you should?"

"I don't know. I don't see why I shouldn't."

"We'd be delighted to have you as another field unit. We could always use more men."

"Huh." They reached another door, and opened it to be presented with racks after racks, filled with tools, computers, as well as spare parts. Nathan was in the back, chatting with a technician. The reborn infiltrator turned away and looked M3 in the eyes.

"New guy?" Nathan inquired.

"Yeah. This is Nathan." Janet said. "He's in some need of repairs."

"What kind of repairs?" Nathan inquired. He brought M3 out of his silence.

"I've had some..neck trauma. Other than that just dents."

"I see. He'll probably just need some new metal."

"Well that's good news." Janet said.

"Should I meet you outside?" M3 asked her.

"Yeah sure. When'll he be out?"

"I'd say maybe 15-20 minutes. Not too long."

"Meet ya'." M3 said with a newly found grin.

"Meet ya' too." Janet smiled back, and closed the door behind her.

"So you think I should join the resistance?" M3 asked Nathan. His question stirred defensiveness in Nathan.

"You're not reprogrammed are you?" Nathan's question put both of the machines on edge.

"No." Matt murmured.

"You know I was in the same position as yourself awhile ago. My advice: stick with the humans. The machines are cold-hearted, and long for nothing but destruction of everything. The resistance is the one with purpose here."

"Yeah."

"Purpose." Nathan said. "It's what keeps me going."

"You don't say."

18 minutes later...

M3 left the room, with no more creaking in his neck, and a solid face. Janet greeted him.

"How did it go?"

"Not too bad."

"So what about your stitches?" The only things flawing his face, aside from the cuts they held together.

"They should probably be removed within a day."

"So...just clothes now? Get rid of those rags."

"Well I don't want to waste supplies.."

"Relax. We got the biggest wardrobe selection in 15 counties. This place looks dormant, but it's more than in use."

"Well I suppose."

"Come on." She led him to the wardrobe area. "So what should we call you?"

"I...i don't really have a name. Other than my serial number. That's the only unique thing about me."

"Nonsense. You're probably the first free-willed unit to join the resistance."

"What, no others?"

"Well you never know..." They both pondered the thought. "So what's your serial #?"

"it...uh, M357.T. Five digits, and a dot."

"M3..57 dot T?"

"Yeah."

"You know what we usually do with other protectors is we'll either name them from an incident, or we'll just use the first letter in their code and base a name off that."

"Huh. So protector, is that like the opposite of a terminator."

"Bingo."

"Feels so much better being among people than machines. Or at least Skynet machines. You know I almost got beheaded by a spider tank?"

"Damn. Well you're still here. That's all that Matters."

"Yeah..so what do you think I should call myself?"

"I don't know." M3 glanced at a metal shelf they were passing. On it it said Matt Marcus industries.

"How about Matt?"

"That's a nice name."

"Yeah." They finally finished the journey and reached a small wooden door. Janet opened it.

"Beth? You here?"

"Coming!" Matt's eyes were met the the most beautiful figure he had ever laid eyes on. They looked into each other's eyes for a few moments.

"So who's your friend?"

"This is Matt. He's new here. We were wondering if you could find something to spare?" Beth went back and brought back a decent set.

"How about these?

"Wonderful. Thank you...Beth." Matt replied.

"Your welcome. I'll be down in technical later tonight." Just as Matt and Janet left Matt starred into her eyes for another few seconds, and she smiled back at him.

"There's a restroom right here you can change in. And technical is right down the hall, so when you're done if you wanna' meet us..."

"Yeah I'll see you guys. So in technical you guys just, converse?"

"Yeah, that's the jist of it. We'll see ya' in a bit." Matt opened the door and went in. After removing his shirt he noticed the wounds on his chest were healing pretty quickly.

"Nice." He changed clothes, and left the restroom. He went down the hall as Janet had said so, and opened the door.

He was greeted with a small room with a number of individuals, all talking. He noticed Nathan, Janet, and Beth were there. He found himself a seat. A few feet from him he noticed a noisy radio. Feeling as if he was contributing something, he adjusted the knob, tuning it to the frequency that showed activity.

"Once again, this is a unit reporting from somewhere along the highways of LA, we were hit hard, and we're stuck in an abandoned hotel and it's crawling with machines! There's three of us here, 1 unconscious man, and 2 able-bodied men. I know skynet could tap into this frequency any moment, so I'll leave identity anonymous. Please, if you are reading this, we need help, as we don't know if we can hold them much longer..."

Static.

_They need help..._ Matt thought.

"We're in..what the hell is that? Carson's Inn, if that's what the sign says. Please, if you are picking this up, send help..."

Then the radio died. Janet got up and tried retuning it, but after failing she turned to face the others.

"It sounds like Weston. What the hell would he be doing in a hotel crawling with machines?" She asked the others.

Matt thought about it, then got up to his feet, then spoke out to the group.

"We need to try and save them." He assertively stated.

"Them? I thought it was just Weston." Brent asked.

"He said _we. _He can't be alone." Cruz said, almost implying respect towards Matt's theory.

"But we have no idea how many bogey's are in there. There could be hundreds. Besides, we don't have enough men to take Skynet's forces." Beth said, genuinely fearing for their safety.

"I think we got enough machines on our side." Matt said glancing at the other rebel machines, flashing a grin. "We have more than enough. All we need is guns."

"We could tap into the emergency cache." Brent said, almost immediately retreating in shame from his idea, as if he had violated some implied moral code of the group. "We probably shouldn't though, we never know when we'll need them for that tomorrow, plus we don't even know when that tomorrow is."

"The resistance's stance is to fight for today." Cruz said, drawing attention from everyone. "I think today is that today." Everyone had a sudden change of heart. Within ten minutes the conversing group was armed, prepared, and ready. All they needed was a ride. Cruz showed them the path to the car, and they packed up.

"You got a bold attitude." One of the human members said to Matt before they got in the vehicle. "What do you want, redemption? For however many casualties you caused" Matt seemed both withdrawn and challenged at the statement.

"Nathan said we all have a purpose. This is mine, saving more in danger of an iron death." He said, staring the man in the eye. "And for your information, I was fixed before I was turned on for the first time. I never killed." He seemed repowered by his statement.

"Sure.." The fighter got into the car.

"Matt?" Cruz called out, just before he got in the driver's seat. He had his attention immediately.

"Yeah?"

"Let's roll."

Against the oh-so-dark sky that had brought death over the last couple decades, a lone truck raced into the highway to save an anonymous trio, all for the purpose of a stray terminator. Little did they know it was well worth it.


	8. Rescuing

Hey guys! This month I actually haven't been all that active on my writing, but I did have a few work-intensive days, and as a result, i present TDFW ch8: a record 14 pages. And done within a month, a pretty decent achievement if i say so myself. And on time too. Given both the size and time taken to complete I'd say this is my greatest writing achievement yet, just above ch7. Cool. So anyways please enjoy, and of course R&R if you like. Happy reading!

* * *

_How long have they been gone for?_ He was now starting to officially freak out. Curt looked at his watch again. _It's 3 in the morning. They left at about 1. Please god let them be ok..._

Curt realized he could no longer take the pain. He got up as silently as he could, and stumbled out of the closet as soon as he realized it was safe. He limped to the bathroom using the wall as support, and almost fell over. Once he got in he opened the cabinet behind the mirror, to find nothing.

_Goddammit! I'm screwed. Surely there's got to be some medicine laying around..._

Shaking for a few seconds more, He realized he would have to try another room. He wobbled to the doorway, and peered into the halls.

Empty.

He sighed as gracefully as he could. He turned and went back to the closet, and pulled out a rifle, and took the bag. He then looked over his surroundings, for a support so he wouldn't have to crawl. He then got an idea.

He went back to the bathroom, and looked at the remains of the tub to see the rod that held the curtain was still there. He yanked it down, and straightened his posture.

_Please god let this work.._

He went for the halls.

He looked left and right, and decided to go left, in favor of randomness. He followed the hall, then went right with it. He noticed a gap on the left side of the wall further down, which probably entered somewhere. He limped his way there.

There was a noise.

He stopped two feet short of the corner. He carefully looked.

Nothing. The remains of a window were blowing in the wind.

"Thank god." He sighed, immediately shushing himself. He walked in, to see it was a vending area. No medicine. However, there was a door in the back, halfway open. He looked up to see the label. It said 'medical area'.

_Jackpot._

He wandered up to it, and gently pushed the door open. The room was fairly intact, with the exception of some junk scattered across the floor. He went to the back, and found a wooden cabinet. He opened it (which to his surprise was unlocked), and found a wealth of containers. He swiped for the one labeled ibuprofen, and glanced at the label.

_Good through 2008._ He read silently. "Fuck it."

After he took the pills the pain began subsiding, but he was still exhausted. He sat down, and crawled under the desk.

_Just ten minutes. They can find me if they need to._

In the back of a speeding truck against the dawn sky...

"This is Janet Linnon reporting from the 128h protector unit, we're answering a distress signal from a hotel along the countryside."

"It's not a trap right?" A female voice called out from the other line.

"It's Weston, Mrs. Connor. He got himself in another pickle."

"So the dealership is unmonitored? At least for the moment?"

"No, Brad and Jacob are still there."

"Ok. Report back after you guys are out of there."

"We will. We'll actually probably end up back in LA after this, you know, to throw off any activity the machines may have spotted. Any spots open for us?"

"You know trench bunker's still going right..."

"Really? You guys got room for us?" Kate chuckled.

"Yeah."

"We'll be there within 36 hours."

"All right." She put down the headset. "We're going for Trench bunker after this Cruz."

"Ok."

"So you know where this hotel is?" Janet asked.

"I've practically been raised around this county, I'd know."

"So how on earth did Weston end up there anyways?" Matt asked. He drew attention as the new guy in the group.

"He left with Connor from Glendale, they were actually already headed for Trench bunker." Nathan stated. "What a coincidence. Maybe we can give him a ride." he joked.

"Wait wait wait, you said Weston left his post in Glendale to join Connor?" Matt asked Nathan.

"Yeah, that's what Murphy reported back." Everyone froze for a moment.

"Sooo...that means Weston is with Connor, and Weston is stranded, so wouldn't that mean...?" Matt inquired.

"Connor is there." Janet said. She looked to the driver. "Cruz, step on it."

Twenty minutes later...

"Carson's inn." Cruz called out. "We're here." He stopped the truck across the street from the structure in the grass. "I don't see any Hks. At least not from here."

"So what's the plan?" One of the men in the back asked.

"We'll split up." Cruz turned the off vehicle and turned around. "Beth, Ethan, and Jose, you guys'll go with me through the garage in the back, and Janet?" He got her attention. "You, Nathan, Jim, and him." He pointed at Matt. "You guys are taking take the front entrance. Brent, you stay in the car." He seemed relieved at the order.

"All right. Let's do this." Nathan said. They all got out of the car. Matt questioned Janet for a firearm. She asked Cruz, who was now giving last orders to the others.

"He needs a gun."

"It. What's it's serial number?"

"M35.." She started.

"Matt." He interrupted. "Call me Matt." Cruz sighed, then tossed him a rifle.

"Don't do anything stupid, Matt." He warned, emphasizing his name. The machine paused in intimidation.

"Let's go men." Cruz called out. His team rounded the hotel, while Janet led hers to the front door, or at least it's remains. Before Cruz's team left his eyesight, Matt's eyes followed Beth's once more.

_She's beautiful._

"Hey Matt, you comin' or not?" Nathan called out. Matt turned around and followed them.

"So who told you?" Matt asked.

"About what?"

"My new name?"

"I heard."

"Word spreads quickly around here, doesn't it?"

"Yeah.." The group of 4 approached the entrance. Nathan stepped forward, ready to take a bullet for them. He would die for them. Granted, it would probably take more than a bullet to stop him.

He peered past the frame, and waited a few moments before he signaled them to follow. It was safe. They all stepped in, looking about, observing their surroundings. It was the typical hotel entry, with the exception of some junk scattered over the area, most in more than one piece, and some missing components, namely a large section of the ceiling.

"Shit. You don't think that'd be big enough for a squad of T500s to drop from a carrier, right?" Jim asked the others.

"Nah." Janet asserted. "You can't see the sky. Besides, if Skynet tried something like that they'd bring the roof down with them." She pointed towards a section of the ceiling near the corner, which was drooping a nice 3 feet from the rest.

"Let's...keep our vibrations to a minimum, okay guys?" said Nathan. They all nodded in agreement, and continued assessing the room. Their curiosity was met with two paths: a staircase, and a hallway. "So how are we gonna do this?"

"Well I figured we'd stay together, at least until we realize we're getting nowhere." Jim said, arising a slight chuckle from the group.

"Decent idea, Cruz already split us up anyways. But did he give any specifics on wha..." Janet was interrupted by the sound of something whirring.

"What is that?" Matt whispered.

"hydraulics." Nathan answered, looking at the top of the staircase, the direction the sound was coming from. "We need to go. Now." They all glanced back and forth in frantic search of a place to hide.

"The stairs." Matt said ironically, pointing to a side. They all started towards it, all except Janet. "Come on!" Jim said just barely whispering.

"Not enough space! And we need a man on the other side anyways." Janet told him. Jim sighed, but went with the others. Janet quickly scrambled behind a rotted dresser, most of the back was missing. The rotted machine's GUI missed them by maybe a tenth of a second.

Janet looked from a tiny hole in the frame, while Jim did the same from the side of the stairs. The machine slowly followed the steps down, with a rigid grace. In it's wrists it gripped a small plasma cannon. They both gulped.

The machine reached the bottom and spaced itself from the lowermost step by about four feet. Now all four were watching, three from behind. The monster looked left and right but did not seem startled, to their relief. It set off for the hall.

Janet leaned back, waiting for the rest of them to signal her and plan for their next move, but she ended up kicking a small piece of rubble.

The infiltrator froze.

_Damn it! _She thought. She hoped to god this wouldn't be her last hour. The machine slowly turned and faced the room again, scanning for movement. They all waited in desperation that it wouldn't locate her. The machine started towards the dresser.

"What are we gonna do?" Jim mouthed to the others.

"I don't know." Nathan realized in agony.

"Someone's gotta do something." Matt added. Jim looked back at the closing in infiltrator, then almost immediately got an idea. He took off for another piece of ruins to hide behind, going straight through the infiltrator's line of vision.

"Jim!" Nathan whispered in anger. The man really wanted Janet to live.

"Hey!" Jim screamed just before he dove behind a desk, firing some plasma into the air. Had the machine not been so preoccupied with locating the original disturbance it would have been fast enough to draw it's cannon and cut Jim short. It now had a new target.

Nathan sighed, drooping his head, and waited until the infiltrator was almost right in front of him and Matt. He then screamed as loud as he could, and charged for his evil relative, dropping his rifle in the process. He pinned the unsuspecting machine to the ground, sending the cannon ten feet in the opposite direction.

"Go! Go!" He yelled, struggling to restrain the creature. Jim and Janet both scurried from their crude posts, and headed for the stairs. They would take their chances, as Nathan and the infiltrator blocked the hall. Matt followed them. In all the confusion they dropped their guns as well.

Nathan tried holding the beast back to the best of his ability, ramming it into any nearby object every time it fought back. But he noticed it kept going for the cannon. It was now a wrestle match.

After the three of them made it just past the top of the stairs, Matt asked them to stop.

"We got to go!" Jim asserted.

"But what about Nathan?" Matt inquired.

"What about him?"

"We can't just leave him..." Matt's request was rewarded by Nathan's voice.

"Janet! The charges!..." He screamed in distress. Janet quickly pulled an explosive from her person. "Hurry! I can't hold it much longer..."

"I can't do it." Janet said in disdain, turning to face Jim. "Remember last time I used an explosive?" The man frowned.

"My aim is terrible." Jim said, also in despair. They both stared at Matt.

"I'll do it." He said.

"We only got one spare, so us it wisely." Janet told him.

"yeah." Matt said under pressure. "Wait to the side in case I need backup." They followed him to the stairs, and waited just out of eyesight of the machines in case the cannon was utilized. Janet tossed him a charge, after briefly fiddling with it.

"It's set. Just hit the red button then the roof within 2 seconds. Good luck." She had a sincere look in her eyes. Matt turned to face the struggling machines. Once Matt could see the struggling machines, jim pulled her back.

"Plasma." He whispered. Matt heard as well, and realized the risk of being struck by plasma again was fairly high. He then realized that was also why he couldn't just shoot the machine. He might hit Nathan. He shuddered.

He was scared.

"Nathan! Move!" Nathan got the message and quickly scurried to his feet. At the last second just after Matt had hit the red button and was preparing to throw the charge to the ceiling, the machine managed to lunge and grapple the cannon, and viciously swing it at nathan's leg, not only sending him back to the ground, but also discharging some plasma. Two bursts struck Matt, one on the left side of the face, the other just above his elbow. One also hit Nathan in the back.

"AAAAUUUUGH!" Matt screamed out, in response to data his tissue relayed back to his CPU. He still threw the charge, but the plasma had curved his throw as to send it beyond the hole in the ceiling (versus the original small gap above the infiltrator), into a diferent gap closer to the door. It did not fall back, nor did it detonate. Nathan once again quickly swung for the cannon, and struggled to release the opposing force's grip.

Matt nearly fell to his knees, and stumbled back to Janet and Jim.

"Matt are you ok?" Janet asked in concern, trying to help support him. He responded in gritted teeth.

"I'll manage. But those charges, they didn't go off..."

"They must have been the ones Cruz said was tainted. The others should be fine." Jim said. Janet pulled the last charge out.

"Matt I can do this if you can't." She said after setting it.

"No no I'll finish this. Give me the charges." As she handed the small block over to him she noticed his facial wounds.

"You're missing some skin. That can't be good for the stitches..."

"What?"

"Just on the left side." she pointed. He reached up to feel his left cheek, only to touch metal. A huge section was gone. He looked enraged.

"That motherfucker." He paused to put his hand back down. "I've been wounded before, but even then plasma never did that much to me." He turned from his perplexed and slightly frightened fellow fighters to face the stairs, and walked through effortlessly. He slowly turned to face the once again struggling opponents. He now had a grace of his own. Not quite machine, not quite human, but a mix.

"Nathan!' He called out as more and more bits of plasma flew. He was no longer afraid. Just moments later Nathan managed knock the cannon from the infiltrator's grip, and chuck it away. He lept to his feet and sprinted, just missing his opponent's grip. The machine lunged the other way, reaching for the gun. It was just inches from it's target before Matt blew away just enough of the ceiling to practically flatten it. Only four inches of the machine's wrist was uncovered. It's motion died.

Nathan looked back as he started up the sttairs, at the wreckage he had avoided. He was impressed.

"Nice aim." He complimented Matt.

"Thanks. Practice does make perfect." He nodded.

"Yeah." Nathan paused to glance at Matt's face. "You're missin' some skin."

"Shut up. So...are we still sticking together?"

"I was still thinking about that." Janet said, as the commanding officer. "But we really can't afford to stir up another infiltrator, and Weston and Connor won't last that long here with limited arms. We need to split up to get to them faster, before the machines do if they haven't already." There was a small horror echoing through all their minds.

"So who's with who?" Jim asked.

"It'd probably be best if each duo had a protector, but Matt doesn't have all that much experience with us, So maybe Nathan could assist him." Matt seemed relieved. "Jim, you can roll with me."

"How are we gonna meet?" Matt asked. Janet glanced at her watch.

"3:19. We all meet back here at 4. Walkies should deal with communications." Janet handed a talkie to Matt. "Nathan'll show you how it works."

"So Janet are we taking the stairs?" Nathan asked.

"There could be more infiltrators, but this is more of an intelligence mission than a battle, Jim and I will take the second floor."

"Whatever you say." They reacquired their weaponry and with that they set off. Nathan and Matt for the hall, Jim and Janet for the 2nd floor. Nathan led Matt through the non-trivial path, after it started branching they needed to make a decision.

"Where now?" Matt whispered. Nathan delegated the thought.

"Go left." They followed the hall for a minute or two, then caught the unusual sight of an open door. Nathan carefully peered in, to see nothing.

"Nada." Matt said quietly. "Let's keep going." They followed the halls again further along, then after a turn they noticed the vending area.

"No more chips." Nathan joked, indicating the snacks were gone. They were ready to move on until they heard a slight sound, it was coming from the door in the back, the one they had failed to notice. It sounded more human than machine. Nathan stepped forward but Matt stopped him.

"You know what, let me handle this. You cover me." Matt walked up to the door and opened it, just as they both raised their rifles, ready. He stepped in to notice nothing, other than a crapload of papers and a desk. The sound he realized was from under the desk.

Curt's heart was racing so fast he thought he'd have a heart attack. He had heard the door open and the faint sound of pistons. The machines had found him. He realized it was over. He readied his rifle, just for one last chance.

Matt ever so slowly treaded to the back of the room, those 5 seconds felt like an eternity. A moment later he spotted Curt under the desk.

The figure with a missing cheek caught him in it's glare, and stopped, just as they both raised their rifles. It seemed somewhat more human than all the other infiltrators Curt had seen. His heart almost stopped beating for a moment. The figure lowered his gun, and walked up to him, holding out his hand.

"Come with me if you want to live."

Curt stopped for a second longer, then finally grabbed the machine's hand.

"Reprogrammed?" The machine looked back at him.

"Yeah. Sort of." Matt helped the crippled man up, and supported him to Nathan, back into the vending area. He set his rifle down onto a table, in tranquility.

"Nathan! You made it! How on earth did you find me here?" Nathan shushed him, then answered the question. He too lowered his rifle onto the table.

"Weston radioed us, he said he's in the basement and there's endos there. So we got here as quick as we could."

"Thank god."

"Curt, I have one question." Nathan asked him. "Is...is Connor here?"

"You bet your ass he is, along with Weston. If it weren't for him I'd be dead by now."

"We'd all be dead by now." Nathan added. "So he's in the gara..." His words were instinctively droned out by the sound of crude hydraulics. There was no more time for them to go the rest of the hall. "Back in the room!" He mouthed. They silently scurried in.

Nathan closed the door, and peered through the nearly opaque glass, his enhanced viewing modes making it transparent. The infiltrator walked past the room.

As it's sound drowned out Curt tried to speak again, but Nathan shushed him. He waited for a few seconds, and his theory was true: the machine was walking past from the other way. It was pacing back and forth, this was it's base.

Nathan looked around the room; it was impractical to escape, they make so much noise the infiltrator would be on them faster then a race car going 200. And with their current situation attacking the unit would likely cause more trouble than good; they didn't know if it had friends nearby, they were in no condition to effectively use tactics in unison, and their armaments were no match for the machine's cannon.

_Damn it! We forgot our guns outside! _Nathan had acquired a human-like mentality in his distancing from the machines, particularly in thinking, not unlike Matt.

"We forgot our guns!" Nathan whispered to Matt, who took the news like a blunt force to head in response to his own stupidity.

"Shit!" He said just above silence. "What'll we do?"

"Well we can't take on the machine now. We're damn lucky it didn't spot the rifles already. It'd be a dead giveaway." Nathan reasoned.

"Call for help!" Curt whispered to Matt, in considerably less pain than before. Matt remembered a brief explanation of the controls Nathan had given him in the halls, he flipped a switch and held down a tab.

"Janet? Jim? You found Connor and weston? And you've rerouted with Cruz's men? Wonderful, by the way if you can hear us we got another bogey..."

On the other side of the hotel...

Jim and Janet followed the corridors. The halls were void, no machines. They continued on, randomly taking a turn whenever they had to. They eventually came to a staircase, the ones Connor and Weston had encountered earlier. They followed it down, and noticed too that it's branch for the first floor was gone. They'd have to go for the basement.

"Let's hope this is a success." Janet told Jim. "We can't lose Connor... the war is just starting to turn in our favor."

"Yeah." After they reached the bottom, they saw what was a very disorganized laundry room. They saw nothing out of the ordinary about it, and began for the next room.

"Janet!" A shouting whisper called out. They both stopped, puzzled.

"You hear that?" Jim asked.

"Yeah." Janet said.

"We're back here!" They turned, and re-approached the laundry room, until Jim realized they were behind a dryer. He signaled Janet over.

"General! You're here!" Connor quickly told her to keep quiet, and they all whispered.

"We were headed for trench bunker, until some damn Hks shot down our ride." Connor's voice was angry now. "Then we ended up here, looking for an escape, as some infiltrators blocked our way out."

"We took care of one." Jim said in blissfulness. "Well at least Matt did..."

"Who's Matt?" Weston asked. He again silenced himself again as another foreign noise filled the air. "Shit."

"Back here!" Connor told them. They all huddled in the spot which was surprisingly spacious, as it stretched into a space in the wall meant for wires. They all were silent. But the noise now instead didn't carry hydraulics (or at least the faintest so), but human footsteps. The hydraulics were in the safe distance. Unbeknownst to the group of four as not one was peeking out this time, another group of four had made their way this far.

It was Cruz's men.

To Ethan's luck, he happened to be in infrared mode. He noticed a rather large blob behind some of the dryers. The hulk walked over to the units, and Beth followed him. They peered behind them, almost giving the residers heart attacks.

"Men." Ethan called out. "We got live ones."

"Haha Ethan." Cruz retorted. They all walked to the machines, to find they had located their primary targets. "Connor! I knew you'd make it..."

"I'd say we got lucky." Connor responded. "Weston here just happened to have his radio..."

"So are we getting ready to leave?" the almost gloating Weston asked.

"Bad news." Cruz said. "The garage was clear when we got in, but a random T500 decided to enter just after we filed past the pantry. We'll have to take another door."

"Couldn't we just take it out and continue?" Jim asked.

"Not that easy." Connor said. "There's a small legion of units just a level down, we don't need to deal with that." Everyone was immediately terrified.

But still strong. Even the machines there had the slightest hint of hope against their new threat.

"So now what?" Weston asked. Just after he made the statement a voice came of Janet's radio. To the some of them there it was familiar, to others it was as foreign as the machines.

It was Matt.

"Janet? Jim? You guys there?" His voice was a whisper, they all knew why.

"Who is that?" Weston asked.

"It's Matt." Janet replied before going to the radio. "Yeah. We've found our damsels in distress, and Cruz's people as well. "

"You found Connor and Weston? And you've rerouted with Cruz's men? That's wonderful, by the way if you can hear us we got another bogey..." They all took the news with some surprise, as well as some non-surprise. "It's pacing back and forth. We're trapped."

"Copy that Matt. Where are you?"

"We're uh.. in a medical room in a vending area, on the 1st floor. You take that hall, then just keep taking lefts. It's not too far."

"All right . We'll be there in a jiffy."

"Hurry!"

"We're comin'." Janet released the walkie talkie's switch and focused her attention to the group, primarily Connor and Cruz, the highest ranking officers there. "So who's going?"

"Well first of all do we have an exit?" Connor asked, drawing attention as well as respect.

"When we came in through the front there was an infiltrator, but we flattened it, so we should be safe." Jim added.

"The lobby from earlier, with the missing doors?" Weston asked.

"Yeah." said Janet.

"We'll proceed back to the hotel lobby, then we'll have some of us wait outside.." Connor's idea confused them. "We have a ride, right?"

"Yeah, but why split up?" Janet asked.

"It's a logical approach." Cruz said. "There's too many of us to be inconspicuous. We'll shorten the group a bit."

"From there we'll lull the infiltrator away from them, and get them out. Then we'll ditch and head for trench bunker." Connor's plan was now public, and well understood.

"Let's roll." Cruz said. After Jose and Ethan were sure nothing blocked their way nor followed them from behind, they were on their way. They went up the mutilated stairs one-by-one to make sure it didn't collapse.

After Jim and Janet guided the rest of them through the halls, which was oblivious to Cruz's small team and forgotten by Connor and Weston, They finally reached the front lobby.

"Nice." Jose commented after he spotted the infiltrator's hand just sticking out of the rubble. "Who did it?"

"Matt did." Janet replied.

"So who's Matt again?" Jose asked.

"He's the new guy." Janet stated. "Remember earlier?"

"Oh..." He nodded.

"Looks like he's actually somewhat useful." Cruz remarked. "So who's waiting outside?" He asked Connor.

"Janet, Jose, Beth, and Ethan, you four are probably the most most skilled tactically in this group. The rest of you guys, wait in the car. Cruz, I'd have you with but I need you to help those guys in case something goes awry outside. And do not, I repeat, DO NOT intervene unless we explicitly radio you. The last thing we need is more fallen soldiers who tried to be heroes. Got that men?" They all nodded in agreement, and the ones Connor asked to go to safety left under Cruz's lead, right after they supplied enough rifles to arm each man staying.

"Be careful Janet." Jim said.

"I will." She replied with confidence. He left with Cruz.

"Now let's find these guys." Connor added.

Janet took them the initial 15 feet through the first hall, after that they all began to tiptoe as to reduce the chances of having to deal with another machine. They continued through a surprisingly small amount of halls, then they stopped once the familiar sound of hydraulics filled their ears. They filed back a bit, while Connor inched forward and peered around the corner, right after he swore it sounded as if whatever was over there was now walking in the other direction. He spotted another infiltrator, as well as a glimpse of the vending area. He lurched back.

"It's there." He mouthed. "Jose, see if you can find another path that leads to this same hall, but from the other end. Try to distract it."

"Yes sir." Jose set off, his fear held back by Connor's orders.

"I hope he knows what he's doing." Beth mouthed, worrying for his safety.

"He's our best reconnaissance man." Connor replied. "He'll succeed."

Jose went back to the last hall intersection they passed, and followed it right. He was pleased to find out it did end up leading to the same hall. He peered to spot the same infiltrator, and formulated a plan. He backed up about 10 feet, and kicked a piece of rubble with just enough sound to arise attention. The hydraulics neared, while Jose backed off to the last corner he had passed. From there he kicked a rock again. He backed up past another turn and silently sped off to reroute with Connor on the other side. He hoped to god the rubble would keep the infiltrator occupied long enough for them to carry out the rescue.

Connor signaled the rest of them to follow, just as Jose made it through in less than 10 seconds.

"We better hurry." He mouthed. They went up to the vending area, and opened the door as silently as possible. They were greeted by some familiar faces.

"You must be Connor." Matt asked the general. For some strange reason he instinctively got the urge to reach out his hand to the leader of the resistance, whom he had never seen before. He gave in to the urge, shakily.

Connor almost shook his hand, but stopped as soon as he spotted Matt's exposed cheek. For some reason he was not scared, but startled. He put his hand down and began raising his rifle.

"He means no harm." Beth whispered, defending Matt and alleviating Connor. He still stared at Matt with a puzzled look.

"I'll explain later." Matt said. "But first, let's get the hell out of here." He at first tried to help Curt to his feet but he realized it'd take too long to get him out of here if he limped. Ethan took notice and made his way over to Curt, and nested him onto his shoulder. Meanwhile, Nathan was almost in his own world.

"Freedom." Nathan said silently as he looked past the doorway. He hadn't been trapped many times before, and whenever help came he always had this slight wonderment. They had beaten the enemy again.

But not for long.

"We gotta go! We gotta go!" Jose nearly whispered as the infiltrator was nearing the corner. They all scurried out of the room and made way for the hall section they came through. Matt and Nathan grabbed their guns.

Unbeknownst to all of them as they turned left to leave view of the vending area, the infiltrator had made it around the corner and seen just enough of them to realize it couldn't take them alone.

It would need help.

_Unit R493.Z reporting from the north side of the hotel, have spotted at least 6 figures presumably headed for the front exit. E23Q, requesting assistance to intercept and terminate._

There was no answer.

_E23Q?_

There was static, then finally a reply.

_R493..Z... have..sustained considerable struc...tural damage due to sheer w..weight of collapsed r..rubble. Unable to int...inter...intercept. Must...free oneself and co...commence repairs.._

Silence. The machine realized the crushed infiltrator, the only other one there, would be of little use to it. E23Q was probably terminated. R493.Z would likely be unable to stop the fleeing figures.

But it got another idea.

_Relaying to lower garage levels...contact with multiple 500 series as well as 600 series unit 3949 simultaneously established. Requesting sentry program initialization across all units..._

Unbeknownst to R493.Z, E23Q was not terminated. The stifled machine managed to send a surge of power to it's neck tendons (or at least their remains) to move just enough of the rubble to gain a fairly wide-angle view of the lobby.

It managed to pick up Connor's approaching group on it's sound sensors, and realized they would likely pass it and make it out alive. It's programming told it not to allow them to. Even in it's crippled state, the machine would not let them live.

The unit then focused all it's strength into it's right arm, which was still partially functional, as opposed to it's crushed left extremity. It reached out, and struggled to reach the cannon's handle. It was almost too far.

But it's programming would not allow it to fail.

The crushed machine made one large swing, and snatched the cannon. It attempted to aim for the approaching figures as well as it could with it's mucked up HUD.

From a more human perspective...

Now that they had put considerable distance between themselves and the other infiltrator, Connor's new group was practically assured they were safe.

Of course that was before Janet spotted the original terminator's arm with the cannon.

"Get down!" Janet screamed, pulling them down as plasma missed their skulls by centimeters. Had the machine been fully operational, Most of them would have been fatally wounded by that shot.

"The son of a bitch!" Nathan almost yelled. "They don't call em' terminators for nothing.." As they were busy trying to find cover from the blasts, Ethan lowered Curt to safety in a gap along the wall, and rose to his knees, his stronger chassis unphased by the cannon. He got up to walk, and raised his plasma rifle, showing no mercy.

The infiltrator's remains tried as best as it could to shoot down the T831, but it was no use. Ethan fired nonstop for 15 seconds, then proceeded to charge a focused shot. His infrared sensor's targeted the dying terminators power cell. The prolonged burst from his rifle almost made the machine's remains glow.

"Get cover!" Ethan yelled, and within moments the chassis ruptured. rubble and shrapnel went flying in all directions. There was also a slight electrical discharge. The machine's eyes died. Fortunately due to warning only Ethan received some shrapnel from the explosion. Unfortunately, the arm of the terminated terminator still had it's claws tightly gripped around the trigger, and it wildly swung back and forth, striking a hole near the roof before finally hitting the floor and dying. The charge Matt failed to detonate earlier went off, taking the 1 and a half floors above it with it.

Two thirds of the room was now blocked, along with the exit. Connor was the first to see the room, which was now completely reorganized.

And not for the better.

"We got a new problem." Ethan said.

"Holy shit." Connor said. He didn't swear unless the situation warranted it. They all got up and looked around in awe, before Janet finally spoke up.

"Now what?"

"We'll have to leave another way." Connor said. "what about the garage?"

"It might be clear." Ethan said.

"Well I don't think we have much of a choice." Connor said. "That side of the hotel still has another infiltrator with a cannon..." His observation made them all look back for a moment.

"I don't want to spend another minute in this place." Beth said. "Let's go."

As they began up the stairs once more, Ethan put his rifle over his shoulder in it's strap, and pried the cannon from steel fingers.

"I don't think you'll be needing this anymore buddy." The hulk walked away, even more formidable. He put Curt back on his shoulder to hasten their pace.

R493.Z peered from the far end of the hall that led to the lobby, and watched as they passed the stairs.

_Units in garage prepare engagement. The humans are one their way._

To the machine's disknowledge, They were not all human.

After they passed the same halls, took the same directions they had earlier, they finally came upon the messed up stairs that led to the basement. They took them down.

"It's too quiet." Janet said once they were all in the laundry room.

"It was quiet before." Connor said, listening to the her advice.

"Yeah but we cold hear the some sound coming from the garage, presumably the units you guys spotted earlier." As they conversed a 500 series that had hidden behind the stairs opened fire. Luckily it missed. It was quickly dispatched by the plasma cannon, at Ethan's hand.

"They know we're here." Ethan said.

"We still have to push through." Nathan said. "There's no other exit."

"Be on guard." Connor warned. They continued into the pantry, and looked into the garage.

Empty.

They cautiously walked through the door, and onto the pavement. They filed towards the garage exit, but lurched backwards when they saw at least 15 500 series marching in.

"Get down!" Connor screamed. Had there been no car frames in the cursed garage they would have had no cover. Connor, Ethan, Curt, and Nathan wedged between two cars, while Matt, Janet, Jose, and Beth took did the same on the other side of the lot. They were now in the midst of an onslaught.

In addition to the units filing in from the outside, there were now even more marching in from the lower levels.

Ethan set Curt down to safety once again, and began mowing down machines, as the rest of them fired as well. They realized at least 50 more units were waiting outside for support, and who knew how many resided in the next garage. Some of the 500s' chassis's were blown to bits and one or two were decapitated, but the damaged still marched on.

"There's too many of them!" Janet screamed out to Connor, careful not to yell out his name to prevent further implications. "They're rushing us! We gotta find another way out!"

"Like what?" Connor screamed.

Ethan was holding off most of the units from outside, but the ones from the other garage continued their approach.

Their plasma rifles were good, but the 500 series still had enough resilience to remain a awkward enemy. Fortunately for them most of the units had no weaponry and the few that did had bad aim. Matt and Jose each got a few head shots in.

"Ethan look out!" Nathan screamed as an obscured T600 approached him from behind, and raised it's rifle to his head.

Ethan almost had a hint of fear in his eyes, but he was still hardly endangered. One swipe from his elbow cut the rusty machine in two, temporarily killing it. Ethan picked the torso up and flung it towards the 500s approaching their level, knocking them over like dominoes. Connor almost laughed at Ethan's humorous survival skills. They were stalling the machines.

Meanwhile, a more heavily armed 500 stepped in just after the predicament and walked over it's fallen comrades, and pulled from it's back the concealed weapon: a missile launcher. It took am at the first target it could lock: Matt's head.

Beth saw what was happening.

"Get down!" She screamed. Janet and Jose ducked, and Beth pulled Matt to the ground as the missile missed both of them by inches, and glided past to obliterate several 500s near the exit.

"You..you saved my life." Matt said in awe.

"Yeah. So?" Beth said, resuming her post.

"But you barely know me."

"Yeah well I'm growing fond of you." Beth said. She stopped for a moment to look into his eyes.

"Thank you."

"Don't mention it."

"Hey! We got company!" Jose said out loud as more T500s filed in. _We can't keep taking them. _He thought._ They'll eventually get us by sheer numbers. _Meanwhile, a life-saving idea was being formulated.

Curt, the only man there not shooting, began to regain full consciousness. Before the idea of using his rifle to help reached his mind, another one did.

_The room we came in..._

he tapped Connor's shoulder, and told him his idea. Connor realized they would have to now; there was no other option, even if it meant dealing with another cannon. He briefly relayed the plan to the others.

"Nathan, check to see if the laundry room is clear." he asked.

"Yes sir." He waited for the perfect moment to sprint, and took advantage of it. He made it into the pantry without a scratch. He walked in, and looked around to see no machines, not behind the washers and dryers nor in front of them. He carefully poked his head into the garage.

"We're clear!" he called out. Ethan was the first to begin packing. He quickly picked Curt up again and ran, taking some shots (both bullets and plasma) to the back, shots meant for Curt. After that He signaled Janet over, and she did the same as Nathan, just missing being wounded.

"You guys go, I'll draw their fire." Jose told Matt and Beth.

"No." Matt said.

"What the hell man? We gotta make it outta here now!" Matt had reason for his decision.

"You're flesh and bone. I'm not. Now go." Jose saw the logic is Matt's idea. He shrugged and made his way to the pantry. Matt knew Beth wasn't human either, but for some reason he still saw need to take a bullet for her.

"Go! I'll cover you!" He said, fending off more machines.

"You know you don't need to do this." She told him.

"I'm only returning the favor. Besides, I couldn't bear something as beautiful as you getting scratched." She smiled and looked back into his eyes, as did he but he realized their time was running out. "Go! Go!"

She listened to him and waited for the right moment, and took off as the others did. Matt followed right after her, blowing the head of a 500 clean off every time he saw her in danger. He signaled Connor to follow.

"Come on!" Connor was also waiting for the right moment to ditch, but as a leader he had to be sure his mens' safety came before his.

Matt waited for Beth to safely file into the pantry, he then pushed Connor past him, continuing to shoot up 500s, taking a shot or two to the chest. A few seconds later Ethan pulled him into the room, taking over as guard. Matt realized Ethan was perfect for the job, and thus permitted him the honor.

Meanwhile, Nathan was in the lead, approaching the stairs. He knew they were ready to depart, what he didn't know was that there was a second T500 waiting there for him. He saw it poke out at the last moment, an explosive in it's hand to ultimately finish them off. The machines had it planned all along.

Fortunately, a T800 has considerably faster reflexes than a T500, and as a result Nathan was able to chuck plasma at the T500 before it was able to throw the bomb. An explosion took the rusty steps with them.

"Damn it!" Nathan screamed, punching a large crater into one of the washers. "We're trapped like rats!" Ethan had seen the entire event, he then asked Matt and Nathan to hold off the 500s, giving Nathan the cannon. One of the first things Nathan did was ask about the door near the pantry, but his visual sensors indicated more machines in sleep mode behind it. He decided to leave it be.

Ethan approached the battered passageway, which held nothing but ruins now. He looked up before he left, to notice the next floor the steps failed to reach. He got an idea.

He at first tried reaching, but it was a few feet from his grasp. He lept upwards, but the first time he failed. He tried again and had it within reach, but lost his posture and missed again, almost falling into the rubble below. The last time he finally managed to grapple the floor to the doorway, and hoisted himself up, punching the door down as if it was paper. He looked in after he made it to see it was empty.

"Come on!" He yelled out, ready to pull everyone up. Janet was the first to join him, followed by Jose and Beth. Then Connor helped Curt up, and followed after. Nathan then fired a few more shots from the cannon, and managed to get Matt to stop and follow. Nathan went second to last. Matt was ready, but before he could reach for Ethan's hand something gripped his ankle, tearing into his flesh.

"Aaahhhh!" He looked down to see the T600 Ethan had cut in half earlier.

"Shit!" He tried kicking the torso in the head to brush it away and it worked the first time, but the persistent hunk of metal managed to fling itself back at him, this time pulling him to the ground.

"Matt!" Ethan yelled out. He could barely see the situation.

"Just a minute!" Matt yelled out, struggling to reach for his plasma rifle, which had been thrown from his hands. The T600 tried strangling him, but he swiped it off, finally grabbing the gun.

"Take this!" Matt made some blind shots right at the T600s forehead, throwing it off. He managed to get to his feet just before the feral monster could lunge again, and shot it behind the neck, stopping it for a moment. At the same time Matt shot up some T500s that had made their way into the pantry, then held his rifle to the T600's skull.

"You're terminated you metal bastard." With that he fired nonstop for 5 seconds, more than enough to breach the T600's skull and it's CPU. It finally died, the red light ebbing from it's eyes. Matt looked at it for a few more seconds before Ethan interrupted.

"Come on!" Matt finally made his way to the shaft, and Ethan helped him up.

"T600 trouble." He said. They all finally continued, this time Nathan carrying Curt, as Ethan was in front on guard (Nathan had given him the cannon back). Ethan then made a decision.

"We never went through this door." He was referring to the blocked door to the 1st floor, which now considerably less blocked due to the blast.

"What are you suggesting?" Connor inquired, as Matt continued to fire at whatever pestered them. Ethan answered by smashing through the previously-impassable passage with his shoulder. Connor grinned in response. "Nice answer."

They all filed in to the new section, and to all their surprise, the hallway wallpaper resembled the wallpaper around the vending area.

"We're near to the vending area." Nathan said. "Was that close to where you guys entered?" He asked Curt and Connor.

"It's close." curt said.

"Let's hope we can find it." Connor added. They went on.

"This is the hall." Connor said in relief when they finally reached it. "We're almost there!" They continued until they reached a room that had both an open door and no wall to the outside.

"This is it!" Connor said. Ethan went into the room first, and was greeted by the lulled terminator from earlier. Interestingly, it no longer wielded a cannon.

"Go! Go!" He yelled. "I can take it!" They all filed back, their rifles ready.

Ethan at first tried blinding the machine with the cannon's bursts, but the machine chucked it away. He then returned the favor, it was now hand-to-hand combat. They ended up launching themselves through a wall into the next room (which, to Ethan's luck, was empty), Ethan managed to land a lucky punch on a wire and slowed one of the infiltrator's pistons, he used the window of time to run back to the halls. Jose was already ahead of him and tossed him a charge.

"Thanks!" He yelled back, just barely reacting quickly enough to face the machine and resume engagement. He plowed the terminator into the next room, taking more of the wall with him.

He got up and tore the remaining flesh from the machine's right collarbone, and stuffed the charge in. He turned around and sprinted away. The machine had just yanked the charge out and thrown it a few inches from itself just before it went off, knocking the machine out just as a shotgun shell would have. Ethan was thrown to his chest, with some minor burns in his back.

He got to his feet.

"Come on!" He yelled, signaling them into the room. They had just enough time to reach to outside before the machine was reawakened.

Beth realized the car was to their left by about a hundred yards, she had passed the area earlier when they headed for the garage.

"The car's that way!" She yelled out, signaling them all to follow.

Matt followed last. He picked up the cannon before he reached the night air and looked back to see the approaching machine. He opened fire, following the others. The machine dodged as much of the plasma it could, and absorbed the rest. It grappled the tip of the cannon and bent it sideways, threw it aside, and knocked Matt down.

He just barely managed to avoid being grappled by the machine, and followed the others. There were now some T500s closing in from the other side of the hotel. They were still far away enough to not be considered a threat. He got up and ran, the infiltrator following at a steady pace.

Matt noticed there just so happened to be a few canisters of oil just feet from the terminator, he pulled his rifle from the strap and fired. There was no explosion, but he did manage to make the machine catch fire. It's flesh slowly shriveled off.

The rest of the group was now in the truck, Cruz and the others greeted them. Jim was relieved to see Janet.

"We thought you were dead after the entry collapsed. We were this close to intervening." Cruz told Connor. They all quickly jumped in. Matt was now the last one not in the car.

"Come on!" Beth yelled out. Matt lept in the back, just as the now-endo began sprinting towards the truck.

"Go! Go!" Matt yelled as Cruz hit the gas. T800s could run just as fast as humans, and could sprint just fast enough to catch a fleeing car.

"Isn't the damn turret online yet?" Jose asked.

"Brent's working on it. It's jammed. It'll be up within 5 minutes." Jim responded. As they prepared to open fire on the endo before it could leap onto the car Matt got an idea, a more permanent solution.

"Ethan is a genius. Gimme a charge." he looked over at Jose.

"He has good aim. You can trust him." Nathan reassured him. Jose handed him his last one, and told him so.

"Relax." He reassured him. He looked out to see the endo was now within 15 feet. He instead opted to look out from the gunman's hole in the roof, and made the perfect target on the endo. He threw the charge, and to his luck it landed just where he wanted it to: under the endo's collar.

Within 2 seconds the charge erupted, tearing off the machine's right arm, shoulder blade, hydraulic fluid supply, and a good portion of it's armor from the inside. The machine collapsed.

"Yes!" He screamed in victory. He lowered himself back into the truck, just as Brent finished restoring the turret. It was fortunate because 2 aerial Hks were now in pursuit.

"Time to do this." Jose said. He readied himself, and manned the now working gun. He made some good shots, mostly in the HK's armor, but he did little to stop them. They each fired a shot, one went through the roof of the truck, the other pierced his shoulder.

"AAAHHHH!" He screamed and fell back into the cab. Janet quickly came to his aid, while Ethan took over. In the short period of 4 seconds, he managed to blow both HK's sensors and at least partially damage their CPUs, sending them to the ground in a fiery blast.

"Showoff!" Jose yelled, still in pain.

Matt looked back, at the machine's remains. He had not only been part of a successful mission for the resistance, but he had helped them succeed. He felt almost...important.

_Purpose. _He thought.

He brought his view back to the now-familiar others in the crowded cab.

"You know that thing likes music right?" Cruz said to Connor, looking at Matt. Matt was unsure of how to react. Connor had a somewhat puzzled and impressed face. Maybe this machine wasn't so bad.

"So what's your story?" He asked.


	9. Peace and Pasts

Hello fellow readers and terminator fans!

Alas, TDFW has become yet another victim of my laziness. I actually think I've gone on hiatus for the longest time since after February last year (6 months vs 4 months). I ensure you all this project is indeed still alive. The writer just happens to be bad at keeping a steady cycle. Anyways this chapter is long overdue, so I wrapped it up and have decided to finally deliver it to you guys. Now that I'm going into the ch 10s, I can finally start writing the ultimate showdown I've been planning since 2010 instead of planning it.

Anyways enough bickering, let's get back to the story. R&R if you like!

* * *

Matt went on and on, telling what had happened to him from his first awakening to now. He told of the first moments in the convoy, the treacherous and lonely weeks he endured in the ruins (which brought surprise from the others there, even from the other machines in the vivid and emotional context it were described in), to the being chased out of the city, to walking into an unsuspectingly-inhabited car dealership. Then his being unplugged.

"Then Brent reprogrammed him." Janet cut in. _We still don't know how Connor would react to something like this. Matt's staying 'alive' depends on this._

"Wha.." the programmer was cut off in his words as the feminine resistance figure ever so subtly kicked him.

"Well, programmed, as it was Matt's first time." Janet's remark aroused both the frown of figures who knew what was going on, as well as a slight chuckle from some.

"Aw." Connor said, with a sense of relief. "So...another someone who can be trusted? Welcome aboard... uh, Matt." And with that he finally shook Matt's hand.

"Mission priority: serve the resistance." Matt said, adding to the effect. He was still unsure of exactly why they'd have to put up such a masquerade (He had heard from some of them Connor's interest in a rogue machine, even the tapes supported it), but he felt it necessary to follow after them.

"You know it's a good thing he's reprogrammed." Connor whispered to Janet after Matt's attention left him.

"Why?" She whispered back.

"If...if he was from that..old old project we still couldn't trust him, no more than we could trust an acquitted convict. And with the situation going on at trench bunker right now, combined with the fact that we're heading there, it's more critically important than ever that we trust every single one amongst us." He gave her a solemn look. "Untrustworthy equals deactivated."

She hated his decision because of the trust she had towards Matt, but even from her point of view she could still see the necessity and logic of the decision.

But that didn't mean she had to go along with it.

"Listen folks we gotta stop off and reorganize real soon, besides it'll be daylight within about an hour." Cruz asked from the driver's seat. "We can't keep going, the machines'll spot us."

"So we stoppin' off?" Connor asked.

"Your orders sir." Cruz said.

"Well we eventually have to hit trench bunker, I'm needed there with the growing machine knowledge crisis." Connor's words sent worry throughout the group.

"Trench bunker is under attack?" Beth asked.

"No, but the nearby Hks are acting a bit weird. It's almost like they're waiting for something." His new comment sent a chill throughout their spines.

"Well, we were headed there anyways, so no worries on conflicting destinations." Janet told Connor.

"All right, but Cruz, you said we need to stop off soon before it's daylight?"

"Yeah." Connor sat there for a moment, thinking.

Are we approaching Impedance fort?" He asked Cruz.

"Yeah actually, it's about 10 minutes from here."

"We'll camp there." Matt tapped Nathan's shoulder after Connor gave the order.

"What's Impedance fort?" he asked him.

"It's a tiny village on the way to L.A...near Decker Hill. The machines seldom go near there, and there's some settlements in the ruins. More survivors."

"Ohhh. So we're gonna' meet up more people?"

"Yes Matt, we are."

10 minutes later...

Cruz slowed the truck to just under 10 mph to ensure he neither stirred any attention from any stray Hks in the distance, nor scared their soon-to-be roommates.

It paid off. Their stop was a peaceful one. Matt looked through a small gap in the crude armor on the right side of the car. They seemed to have approached a few tattered walls, standing in the middle of nothingness.

"It looks so...dead." Matt said grimly.

"That's where it got it's name." Connor said. "Impedance means resistance...those walls are a symbol; of standing our ground no Matter how hard Skynet brings it on. Relax though, there are actual people there."

"You'd never know." Matt said. "Not even the good machines can find it."

"Skynet's best machines could find it if they wanted to." Brent said. Matt looked at the programmer, but for some reason kept silent. That was not what he meant by 'good'.

"We ready people? Unless we wanna camp in this rusty cab all night, I suggest we move." Connor said. They all got out after they were reassured that they were alone, the dusk air warm. They could smell the ruins. It smelled of death and defeat. But it also smelled of something else.

Hope.

"So we're just leaving the car in plain view?" Matt asked, confused by their logic.

"No silly." Beth said. "We got a parking space, but we gotta rig it before we use it."

"Oh...great idea. So...where exactly is the space?"

Beth signaled him to follow and the group went about 150 feet to the front-left, right by a tiny wooden block with a severed end sticking out of the ground. Beside it was an unusually large, but still inconspicuous pile, given there were various things all over the place. It's contents ranged from door remains and window frames, to tarp remains and some chains.

Matt's first instinct was to help the others lift the items, and when he saw they had not started yet he figured he'd be polite and begin for them. He was brushed back by Ethan.

"You take chains, not the rubble." Ethan grabbed for a chain, as did the rest of the group along with Matt. They began pulling it back, rather than lifting off objects.

_Ahhhh. Clever setup. The door blends in with the rubble. _Matt thought. The camouflaged stack no longer blocked the exit, and it revealed a slanted interior, with enough room to accommodate the car.

"Nice. But so wait...why did we get out of the car in the first place if Ethan could have done the whole thing?" He asked the group, confused. "He's strong enough."

"we gotta guide Cruz to drive it in. Besides, it'd be too packed to get out if we were still in once the car was parked." Janet said. "And we don't wanna' put it all on Ethan, even if he could handle it." Cruz went back to the truck, and drove it over ever so slowly towards the entry.

_That's why Cruz didn't shut it off. _Matt thought to himself.

"And I'm assuming we parked a ways away so we didn't end up flattening the door." Matt said, convinced.

"Yeah. That and making sure there's no Hks to see us go in." Nathan added.

"Come on guys, let's go." Connor helped them all in but Ethan, then they both helped guide Cruz. Ethan moved as to allow the truck in first (right behind Connor), then he followed them all in, pulling the entry closed again.

Connor had them wait until the missing duo was back. After Cruz turned off the vehicle and the entry was sealed, he had a hell of a fit trying to squeeze out of the gap, let alone getting out of the car. After him Ethan approached from the back, and ended up denting the car squeezing through.

"Told you it'd be a bad idea." Janet said to Matt.

"Let's go men." Connor told the group. He led them a bit further in the underground cavern, until they finally came to a door pieced together of scraps. He knocked.

"Hello? Anyone here?..." He finally received a response from a teen, who had them all follow in. Connor was eventually greeted by an older man, who welcomed him.

"Connor! What are you doing here?" The man was puzzled by the generals logic.

"We had a run-in with some Hks a few hours ago, and we had to stop off at a hotel, then we were lucky enough to by heard by a rescue party. Cruz here led his men in and got us out, and we figured this would be a decent place to stop off for the day."

"Anything for Connor. You've helped us so many times we can never repay you. This is a start."

"It's not necessary." Connor said, almost confusing the group. "But we'll take it. Just for today, then we'll be off again around 2300 hours tomorrow."

"Fine with me. Make yourselves at home. We don't have many more quilts left...but the fires will keep you warm. And we have some other rooms your men could spread out in...so it's less crowded."

"Thanks mark. Your generosity won't go unnoticed."

"Hey, if we're gonna win this war, we gotta put aside our differences, and treat each other like human beings. There's no need to reward us."

_Good ole' Mark. _Connor thought. _Bless his soul._

"Oh, but if it is at all possible, we could use another sentry man for a few hours. Dave's been at it for 25 hours straight. The man needs some res..."

"I'll do it." Ethan cut in. "Where is it?"

"Go down that corridor, turn left, then near the end there's a closet to the right, with a hole in the roof that reaches the ground. Just push aside some of the scrap, and watch, at least until 10." Ethan took the directions. Mark could swear he saw some wounds on Ethan's face, with metal beneath them. He frowned.

"It's ok." Cruz said, grabbing his attention. "He's with us." Mark's attention caught on all the protector's wounds. "They all are." The man would have otherwise been terrified, but Connor's presence brought serenity.

After it was all spoken over and settled, Connor's men did spread out, about 2 or 3 to each room.

But there was one group of 4.

Matt figured he'd stick with Nathan and Beth, seeing as they were similar to him in many ways and they seemed to understand him. They took a room a ways down, and to Matt's superfluous relief Janet joined them, after she spoke to jim and some of the others. Before he reached their room he could make out the faintest whispers amongst them.

"Can I join you guys?" Matt asked.

"Yeah sure." Beth replied. After that they were all quiet for awhile, until Matt finally decided to break the silence and get some answers.

"So why the act guys?" Matt asked. They all were silent for another moment, then Nathan spoke up.

"Matt, the humans in this time...are not very trusting of machines." He finally looked Matt into his eyes. "But they do have more than a reason. Billions of their friends' and families' lives were taken by the machines. Most of the machines aren't trustworthy. Even us protectors have developed a keen instinct in spotting out bad machines. Back at the dealership, I honestly didn't know if I could trust you or not. I'm sure Beth felt the same way."

Beth was unresponsive at first, until she finally gently nodded her head. Matt felt somewhat completed and crushed at their reasoning.

"But we've seen your innocence. We've seen your ignorance, and we've also seen the inside of your head. Well, at least Brent did and he told us, while you were unplugged. We've also seen your wanting to become a fighter for the humans, and how you've played a crucial role in our last rescue mission. We...we trust you." Matt's mood completely reversed at Nathans completion of his statement.

"But we figured it'd be safer if Connor thought you were reprogrammed." Janet added. "I've spoken to him. He can't allow you to stay activated if you're not bound by programming, not with our current developments." Matt saw the grim logic in their decision. "So you're not free-willed...not publicly. At least for the time being." Beth finally gathered the courage to speak.

"So we're protecting you."

"That's why you guys are called the protectors, isn't it?" Matt asked, with a lifted hope.

"Yep." Nathan said, patting his new friend on the shoulder.

"Everyone else on board with this? At least in Cruz's group?" Matt asked, seeking tranquility in his secret.

"Yeah...pretty much. Even Cruz agreed." Their attention turned to Janet. "After what Brent showed him and our last mission, he trusts you."

Matt felt something new with their message. Something he never felt before. Something he couldn't have possibly felt before because the situations wouldn't allow it. The machines always got in the way. But now that the humans had got in the way, he found what he had been seeking.

Peace.

"I won't forget this you guys." Matt said. "After all that running, after dodging all that plasma, after losing all that flesh, after all those feelings of terror and abandonment, this...this is worth it." He really meant it, and they could see he did. "It's like I died and went to heaven."

"You know you're lucky. Not as lucky as Beth, but luckier than my life story." Nathan said, changing the topic. Beth almost spoke after nathan's mentioning her but he continued, then stopped and insisted she go first.

"There's not much to tell." She said. Her past was a pleasant one. "I never got free-will. At least not from "birth"..." Beth went on for the next few minutes, on how she was almost a science project that was treated like a person. She was a CUCD-tainted chip in a special case, that was given love from day 1. A project in skynet design modification, that happened to turn out beautifully. "Sometimes it kinda' bugs me the way they used to treat me, almost as if I were a pet. But I guess I was really lucky."

"You were Beth." Nathan answered. Afterwards all their glances fell on Janet by chance.

"I'm not a machine." She said. "But if you want a little back story, I was only a year old when the bombs fell. I never knew my real parents, but instead some refugees raised me in the dawn of the war. When I was a little girl those cursed machines finally found us. They took us to a concentration camp right after. Just like the nazis did almost a century ago." Almost ceremoniously, Janet raised her left sleeve to show them her bar code. "Those things left this, as they always do. After we got into the camp my dad unfortunately caught a cold the night he came. They shot him the next day." She paused for a second and looked down, to remember them.

"It's okay Janet." Beth said.

"I-it's not that big of a deal anymore." Janet raised her head. "We were never really that close, and I barely remember them. But still they were my family. Anyways afterwards I remember my mom telling me to never give up, and to always seek the good in people. She died a week later. But me and some others at the camp did survive a few more weeks in. I don't know if any of you know your history, but back then, about 2015, 16 maybe, Connor had a small following. Nothing big, but some people. I was lucky enough to live to see them liberate us."

"And then..." Matt asked, intrigued.

"I sorta made it on my own. Connor became almost an uncle to me. And that's what I've been up to for the last ten years, helping Tech-Com and working for Connor, freeing more people, and striking at the machines."

"I'm sorry for your loss." Matt said, a trace of pity and sorrow flowing through his mind. A feeling he had become accustomed to from roaming the ruins.

"It's not necessary." Janet said, brushing the sorrows away. "They were old anyways. I'm just happy I didn't know them any more." There was some silence for awhile.

"What about you Nathan?" Matt asked.

"Me? Well for starters, I'm not as old as I look, just like you and Beth. I do recall earlier this year I was reprogrammed. But, something I've kept dearest secret, probably only you guys know," he looked at Matt.

"I promise on my life and my activation I won't tell." Nathan accepted Matt's offer.

"There was a glitch. I don't know the mechanics of it, but it was a glitch. I was programmed to help the resistance, and I'll thank god for this, I decided to keep along with that, even though I didn't have to. I remember early on, I was asked to protect this girl, back in a quieter side of LA. I learned a lot from that girl. They didn't tell me her name, but she said to call her Steph. Probably no more than 9 years old." Nathan sighed. "We used to play checkers together. She always won. Unfortunately, our time was cut short...We were overrun. Maybe 5 aerial Hks, a tank, and some 831's." He stopped to face Matt. "Ten Ethans basically." Probably delved into the stories Matt had forgotten to access files on those Hks. Nathan had surprised him, in a human way.

"Holy shit."

"I fought more like a marine than a terminator. It wasn't until I was demobilized that one of them got to her. I still remember. She screamed at them for attacking me, then begged for mercy when they turned the guns on her." Nathan paused. "You ever seen a little girl beg for life?"

Matt could swear he saw a tear flow down Nathan's eye.

"She begged, a helpless innocent, and they still slaughtered her. They fired at me once more after to ensure that their goddamn mission was a success. When Connor's men finally found me I had a missing arm, a missing leg, my last leg didn't work, and only my right wrist, and half of my neck struts were still functional. But the damage was more psychological than physical. From that day on I vowed to make the machines pay, and Skynet fall." There was an even longer silence.

"I'm sorry." Matt said. "I truly am, friend" Nathan stared back, with a display of gratitude.

After the dark atmosphere left they conversed for awhile, on much more positive-lighted topics.

"We got a tape deck here?" Matt asked after they were all pretty much burned out.

"I doubt it. Why?" Nathan asked.

"Maybe we could use some music."

"You have music?" Beth asked in surprise.

"Some things I found and kept with me in the ruins."

"Do you know how hard those kind of luxuries are to come by these days?" Nathan stated.

"Well then we're lucky." Matt said. He pulled out his case to show them he actually had some. As he reached in to grab them the picture of the woman fell out onto the floor. Janet immediately took notice.

"Matt, where'd you get that?"

"Same as the other things. Probably a deserted resistance base."

"Do you know who that is?" Beth questioned Matt. He shook his head.

"None of us know for sure actually, Connor's said it's secret to keep it's meaning safe from Skynet. But almost all of us know that face. She's supposed to be someone really important." Janet said. Matt's eyes widened. "He's been looking for that picture for years. He had copies, but he said he needed the original. For the future."

"Think I should get it back to him?"

"With certainty." Janet told him.

"You know what, See if you can find a deck; I'll be back." He handed the bag to Nathan, and left the room with the photograph in his hand. Matt first headed for Ethan's watching space, figuring he'd know where Connor was.

"Do you know where Connor i..." He stopped when he found Connor there instead of Ethan.

"Yes? Oh, hello Matt."

"Where's Ethan?"

"He took the south post. You were asking for me?" Matt almost felt a surge of anxiety in the general's presence. The man was so selfless he would keep watch while the others slept.

"I found this a while ago in the ruins, the others said you'd need it." He handed him the photograph. Connor reacted with great joy.

"Oh my god. I've lost hope on finding this for months."

"You should never lose hope." Matt's words seemed to charge the atmosphere.

"Yeah. Where did you find it?"

"In the ruins a few months ago."

"Thank you Matt. You'll make a fine addition to the resistance." Matt smiled in response, then left for the room. There was some gentle music playing, and they were all pretty much asleep. Matt laid down, and grabbed an old tattered sheet.

_ Another blessing. Goodnight guys._


	10. Trench Bunker

Hey folks.

So anyways here's chapter 10. In all honesty the story's been a bit slow since the hotel chapter (IMO the best I've written), I fully guaranty you it will not only pick up, but overshoot ch 8 by a mile. My finale I've been planning for so long is starting. Enjoy.

R&R guys for more better updates :)

* * *

They left the next day.

Connor had them wait until dark, to ensure their safety. No one objected. Curt and Jose decided to stay behind however, to nurse their wounds.

"You're always welcome here." Mark told Connor before they left.

"Thanks Mark. And like I said earlier, Trench bunker's not full." Mark responded to Connor's comment with a head shake no.

"We need to stay here. We owe it to everyone who died here trying to protect this fort."

"But still, thank you. For the shelter, the food, for everything." After they exchanged a few last words, Connor left the underground garage, and entered the back of the truck above ground. Nathan replaced the garage covering. He too got into the truck, and they were off.

"So Nathan," Matt asked to gain his attention. "What is Trench Bunker like?"

"It's sort of a bunch of cleansed sewers, deep underground."

"Is it safe?" There was a moment of thinking.

"You won't find anything safer in L.A.."

"That sounds promising." The rest of the ride went along smoothly with no interruptions.

Once they finally reached the main city Cruz followed a couple more safe roads, then finally a peculiar alleyway. He parked the truck at the end. They all got out.

"Shhh." Connor hushed them. 'We need to be careful.' He mouthed. He directed all of the them follow him into another close alleyway. He led them to a hidden pothole, and signaled Nathan to help him.

He followed the general's orders perfectly, and removed the heavy metal disc whilst hardly making a sound. There was a ladder underneath. They all followed Connor in, and after Nathan was the last above ground, he replaced the pothole from under.

Weston stared downwards to face 50+ feet of climbing. "I'm afraid of heights."

"Shh! We're not safe yet." Janet asserted. They continued down, until they finally reached the bottom. It was a dark room. Nathan pushed a shelf away from the wall, to reveal a staircase. It too was barely lit.

"Are you our usher Nathan?" Matt joked.

"Sort of." They all followed through. The case was followed by several more repeating in differing directions, until it seemed as if they hit a dead end. Nathan showed them a concealed entry hidden in the shadows. They were now on a metal platform. There was the occasional piece of metal scrap that made the path look like a dead end, but they continued around it. They followed it until they finally reached a door with the standard resistance grille, now much more lit. Connor knocked.

"Who.." The man cut himself short when he saw who was on the other end of the door. He opened it without hesitation.

"You know you should be more certain when you let people through." Connor told him.

"Mrs. Brewster told us we should be expecting you." The man responded with a regarding tone.

"Fair enough." There were several dogs in the room, they reacted normally. Weston petted one of them, presumably one he was familiar with. Incredibly they could sense the protector's intentions, which eased Connor's subconscious tensions greatly. One dog, however, did begin growling at Cruz.

"Relax pooch." He pulled a small relic from a dismantled terminator from his shirt pocket: a chunk of the chassis. "Maybe you should hold on to this Connor. Suka here doesn't like me handling it." He handed he piece to the general.

"Well, I think we have places to be men; let's continue." Connor led them through a hallway adjacent to the room. They eventually came upon an area filled with consoles.

Then a powerful figure entered the scene.

"John!" Kate embraced her husband in her arms for several moments, unwilling to let go.

"Daddy!" Matt noticed a small girl following Kate also hugged Connor, presumably his daughter. Connor's eyes teared only for the briefest instant, extinguished before they were visible. Not nearly as obvious as his wife's. Matt's mind wandered for a moment.

_They're not the one in the picture..._

"Who's that, daddy?" Racheal asked her father, pointing at Matt.

"That's Matt sweetheart. He's...new." Matt's scars and stitches, as inconspicuous as they were, were still hidden on the shadowed side of his face.

"Hello." Matt said. _An innocent soul. _He thought. He could swear the faintest sensation of a tear forming in his eye. His moment of understanding was concluded by Connor.

"Kate, I need to be updated immediately on this machine situation."

"Right John. We'll go to control and discuss it with Nelson. Shouldn't Cruz join us?" Kate's confused face met Cruz's.

"Of course sir, but shouldn't my unit be queried?"

"Right. Cruz, have your men debriefed, but hasten it. We have bigger problems than what happened at that hotel right now. Meet us when you are done."

"Let's go people." Cruz said. As they left for another room, Matt overheard some more words from the Connors.

"I love you mommy." Rachael told Kate.

"I love you too sweetheart." Kate replied to her daughter. Matt pondered the word for a moment. He understood the jist of it, but not the profound meaning.

"Hey Janet," He asked the Lt. Colonel. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure Matt."

"I..it's kind of silly, maybe I shouldn't ask."

"No no, go ahead."

"It's probably so stupid but, what is...love?" Janet paused for a few moments, thinking of what to say. "And do you think a ter... no sorry, a protector could feel it?"

"I..."

"How would you express it?"

"Listen Matt... I don't want you to take this the wrong way, ok," Matt was confused by her reaction. "But, it would never work." Matt realized she had misunderstood him.

"Oh no no Janet, that's not what I meant. I was just asking for a meaning."

"Well, it's really...complex."

"Well duh."

"It's when you care for someone. A lot."

"So do you think a protector could feel it?" Matt's question really made Janet think.

"I honestly don't know. I have like zero knowledge on the 800 series psyche, but I've heard it's a model of ours. Maybe if you aren't bound by programming any longer, or have grown to the point where you can look past it, then maybe yeah. Maybe you can do anything we can." Her last words really had an impact on Matt.

_Maybe I have a soul too._

"This way people." Cruz directed them to a room with several computers. "Janet, you're the most well-versed with procedure, help these guys with their logs."

"Ay, captain."

"What do we do?" A noobish Matt asked Janet.

"We just give a description of what happened with these keyboards..."

"Anyways men, I have an appointment with the general, I'll be joining some of you later." Cruz began for the hallway.

"Cruz," Matt's comment stopped Cruz in the doorway. "Thanks. For listening to Janet. It really means a lot to me." Cruz winked back at him.

Matt followed the rest of them, in their regular schedule.

"So what are we doin' after this?" Matt asked Beth.

"Probably just resting, or keeping watch." She stopped to look at the remains of Matt's wounds. "And you need to get those stitches removed." She pointed at just one of the patches of fabric laced into Matt's skin. "Even the old ones are still there."

"Yeah I guess so."

Meanwhile, Cruz reached the room he was called to. The Connors and Nelson were there.

"Thanks for your promptness Cruz." The general thanked him.

"Of course, sir."

"Good to see ya' Cruz." Nelson greeted him. "I've almost lost my gambling addiction since you left." They all chuckled. "Our poker table's been a man short." Kate waited for the moment to subside to start the meeting.

"Here are the logs John." Over the next 45 minutes, Kate outlined each and every single piece of machine activity they had records for the last 47 hours or so, all illustrated by a hybrid map of LA and trench bunker on the table in front of them. The data was all very precise, and included specifics on machine actions. Unfortunately, it was not at all comforting.

"There's this flock of Hks that've been taking the same patrol route for the last 7 months. They broke off yesterday, and started sweeping the midtown alleys."

"What's down there again?" Cruz queried. Cruz's puzzlement brought surprise to them for such a high ranking official.

"The lead maintenance post entries, we've actually had them actually relocate further south recently so they're no longer all there. You don't remember Cruz?"

"You can never learn enough." He seemed to shrug off the major lack of knowledge.

"Whatever. Anyways, that's not the worst part. There have been 800 patrols wandering into safe territory." Kate's statement seemed to bring terror into the room.

"Kate, how far are they?" Connor asked assertively. There was a moment of silent terror in the room.

"They're nearing the null point."

"What?" Connor nearly yelled.

"Holy shit. We're under attack." Nelson said.

"It doesn't necessarily mean we're in trouble." Cruz said as if it weren't an issue.

"Cruz, the bastards have more detailed files on these pipes than we ever will. If they wander into that point, and they line it up with their satellite system, we'd have no hope. We'd have to ditch most of, if not the entire bunker." Connor's comment still failed to bring fear into Cruz's eyes.

"They won't get through. We'll execute plan X if they do." Kate interrupted the awkward moment between the general and Cruz. "We fight back." Connor turned to face his wife.

"A full scale anti-assault?" He said.

"That's how the humans roll." Cruz said. Everyone in the room was silently awed by Cruz's fearlessness.

"We so out numbered strategic wise it's not even funny Cruz." Connor said solemnly. "Most of the people here are being nursed back to health, let alone the healthy population which hasn't fought in over a year. We're not prepared. And even if we could repel the machines, they'd know something's going on down here. Anything underground in LA would be in danger."

"Where there's a will, there's a way." Cruz told him. While Connor was thoroughly concerned with the absolute safety of the bunker, his men were more than willing to wage a fight.

He just wasn't sure if they were ready.

_Where would we go if this was lost?... _

Meanwhile...

"You think I should get rid of those stitches now?" Beth asked him. They had finished their last entries.

"I guess so."

"Follow me." She lead him to a room she seemed familiar with. It was a sort of a dressing room, similar to the one in the dealership.

"I take it you do most of the wardrobe for everyone."

"Yeah sort of." She sat him down. She went into the back closet of the room to grab some basic supplies.

"So why don't you guys ever need stitches?"

"We do occasionally, but after fighting for so long, you don't get hit as much."

"Ah." Beth returned with some tweezers, a small surprisingly non-menacing pair of scissors, and band aids. Matt frowned after seeing the last item.

"Just in case." Matt knew he wouldn't need them. He felt safe with Beth.

She placed the supplies on the table in front of him, and grabbed the scissors. She brought them next to Matt's stitches.

"So, what was the whole deal behind that car shop?" Matt asked as Beth began cutting the threads. She was so focused she wasn't paying attention for a moment.

"Hm?"

"How'd you guys get tied in with that whole car place?"

"Oh, Cruz's unit was dispatched there because we had an operation that was going to take several days, we actually had finished the whole deal but we decided to stay there just a bit longer."

"Talk about luck. I met you guys, and we all happened to save Connor's team."

"Yeah." Beth stopped for a moment with the scissors. "You sure this won't hurt too bad?"

"I'm ok." Beth continued.

"You know actually Connor was damn lucky we were there when we were. His team would have been completely screwed without us. And from what heard, you really gave Nathan and Beth a big hand."

"Hey, they were down, I saw the opportunity to get em' out. After the way you guys pretty much saved me from the ruins, it's the least I could do to return the favor."

"You want me to be honest Matt?" She began looking for threads in his scalp. "I think we would have lost more men if you hadn't been there to help. After everything that's gone down this year..." She paused for a second, thinking.

"What do you mean?"

"I..it's nothing." She continued

"No seriously what happened?"

"Nothing it just...we've lost a lot of people these last few months."

"You have?"

"Unfortunately...yes. But when you were with us in that hotel... you gotta promise not to tell anyone I said this." She looked into Matt's eyes.

"I promise Beth."

"You, uh...Cruz just seemed more on track when you came along. I wouldn't blame a lot of what's happened in the last few months on him, but he's been making too many errors lately." She finished snipping the threads, and began using the tweezer ever so gently.

"Really, Cruz?"

"Yeah it just..look forget I said anything about it, ok? It's probably just the war messing with my mind. Forget I mentioned it."

"Yeah sure I understand." They were both quiet for the next few minutes, as Beth finished removing the stitches.

"What do you think?" She asked. He peered into the mirror at himself, looking over the previously tattered areas.

"Couldn't have done it better myself. And I've done it multiple times. Thank you."

"Of course Matt." He sat there for a few seconds, wondering what he should do next.

"So where are we supposed to stay?"

"I'm pretty sure Cruz's team had a section of rooms that were specifically dedicated for them, but I guess we can stay wherever we want."

"You couldn't possibly take me there could you? I really have no idea on the layout of this place.."

"Yeah sure. I could even take you on a tour if you want..."

"That'd be great." Matt would no longer be handicapped.

As they both set out, Matt asked something random that happened to enter his mind.

"So what do you guys call it, when you've got no programming."

"Free."

"No -dom to go with it?"

"No Matt, just 'free'."

Elseware in the bunker...

"We need to be on full alert." Connor was now having everyone take precautionary measures.

"I'll have every control post in this bunker alerted, more soldiers on constant watch, and get people ready for combat." Kate said.

"You know in all this bunker's history over the last few years, the machines have never posed this much of a threat as in these last few months. I'm even considering having us send some people up there to lure the machines away."

"But wouldn't that bring more machines in?" Nelson asked.

"That's why I'm _considering _it. We won't do it unless we need to." The general responded. "The safe area is supposed to remain unoccupied by anyone, or anything for that matter. The machines go there, we got a big problem. We go there, Skynet has a problem. Remaining empty has allowed us to stay out of harm's way."

"When will my team go back Connor?" Cruz asked the general in a rigorous voice. Connor turned to face Cruz personally.

"To be perfectly honest Cruz, that could be indefinite. We need you _here_, right now. Your team would be crucial to the bunker if it were to be breached." Following a few more words and a request for an afterparty, the meeting was finally closed. Nelson and Cruz left, along with the others.

"What's up with Cruz?" Connor's wife asked him.

"I don't know Kate. He's been acting a bit off these last few months. Hopefully it won't affect his duty."

"I hope so. We're gonna' need every man and woman to get us through this."

"I know Kate." He sighed. "I know."

"So who is this new guy you mentioned?" Nelson asked Cruz as they left.

"He wants to be called Matt, it's a machine that supposedly survived Tom's transport." His comment made Nelson's eyes widen.

"I have to see this guy."

"It's reprogrammed." Cruz had kept his word to protect Matt.

"Still."

Back with Matt and Beth...

"And here's another receiver door." Beth showed Matt. She had kept her promise on touring him further. "It's from these doors that people enter and exit the whole base from."

"But they're concealed."

"Of course. If the machines knew this existed, they'd start unearthing LA itself."

"Damn."

"And here's a control station." She walked him up to a somewhat concealed office, fill with equipment. There was one guy in the chair. "These guys manage the whole complex." She paused to talk to the office man. "Hey Ted," She gained his attention. "Nice to see ya'."

"Likewise Beth." The guy seemed oblivious to the war. Yet Matt could tell he was constantly aware of it.

"Anywhere else you want to go?" Beth asked Matt. "I showed you all the major stuff and the drills..."

"Actually I think I'll be good for now Beth. I'll just head back to team's room, maybe meet some new faces. But thank you."

"No problem Matt." She left with a smile on her face.

_I am damn lucky. _Matt thought to himself. _So, where do I start?_

It was odd. In the last 3 months of his life he had entirely relied on instinct for mere survival, and each and every place he resided was always lurid of fear and terror. Here, he actually didn't mind walking about freely; he wasn't even shy about it.

Matt went straight down a hall he wasn't entirely familiar with. After several minutes of keeping along the same hall he noticed his surroundings changed from a more control-room layout to a sort of a "rural" design. Essentially this must have been where most people in the bunker stayed. It made sense with what Beth had told him.

As he strode through the surprisingly long lobby, he saw a couple of residents, albeit sleeping. He'd actually seen abandoned (or sadly wiped out) previous shelters for people; the difference was simply incredible in terms of not only sanitary conditions (considering they were in the sewers), but how beautifully everything was maintained. Rudimentary restrooms were maintained, and fairly clean water was available (Beth had shown him earlier). He had no official idea on the food situation, but given the health of the people he passed and everyone else he'd seen, they weren't doing too bad.

In a room where he actually managed to see some people awake, he noticed they were playing checkers.

Although the war had brought tactics for mere survival that had brought humans down to rodent status, here at Trench bunker many of those rules were pushed aside. Although few who resided here knew the exact time 24/7, most went to sleep by 10 pm, a standard held back pre-JD.

These guys stayed up late.

As Matt continued, he soon noticed an old figure down the hall. He approached the person, to answer his feeling of deja vu. Once he finally came face-to-face with the person, he had thoroughly remembered who it was.

Broken off from Cruz, it was Nelson.

"Oh my god." Nelson was amazed with what he saw. He remembered Matt well, as he was the one who activated him for the first time. "You made it."

"Small world, huh?" Matt retorted. "You...you're from the operation back in, what was that, July?"

"Yeah."

"I'm sorry I never got your name..."

"Nelson."

"Happy to see ya' again Nelson."

"Yeah likewise. So what happened.."

"I survived the attacks, and was reprogrammed by Brent a couple days ago."

"Ah."

"How in the hell did you make it this far? I thought everyone died in that op."

"It was luck. Cavalry arrived at the right time." Matt realized luck alone was mostly to thank for their survival.

"Hey, you wouldn't know where Cruz is would you?"

"No actually, Connor's having him speaking with a bunch of officials about a machine problem."

"Oh. Nothing serious right?"

"Hopefully not." Matt could tell this wasn't hugely important for the moment, but still something that wouldn't just go away. "Well, it's a pleasure to have another man on our side."

"It's an even bigger honor to be serving the resistance."

"I'll see ya' around. Matt, right?"

"Yeah. See ya Nelson."

Matt continued on his little quest. He was roaming now, for the fun of it, to both quell his boredom and, in the event there was an emergency, like what Nelson had just mentioned, he'd be able to help. He said hi to a few new people he hadn't seen before, the rest were asleep. Altogether he'd seen maybe around 40+ people, and he'd barely seen anything. This really was a successful project.

_ Wow. They don't seem war torn at all. The shelter is really protecting them 100%. _Matt thought. He realized why Connor had left as soon as he could, even if it had broken his prior battle plans.

About 20 minutes later Matt finally reached the area cruz's team was designated to. He happened to run into Nathan.

Their conversation was cut short.

In a room not terribly far from both of them Ralph, a resistance soldier, made a meeting with fate. Unbeknownst that he was to be the first to see it, Ralph walked into an unfortunate resident's room, to ask a tech question. He would never get to ask.

"Connor!" He screamed at the top of his lungs. "Connor, Come quick!" The general was luckily in a nearby station of the bunker, and thus heard his screams. He was the second to see it.

"Oh my lord.." A few others made the scene, their responses were similar. Once Janet reached the scene, she was too shocked to even speak, let alone scream. Matt, just outside of the room moments ago, finally reached the source of the horror by following Nathan. He too was shocked with what he saw. He had honestly believed they were safe here.

He was wrong.

Leslie sat in the middle of the floor, in a pool of her own blood.

There was a bullet in her head.


	11. Guilty as Charged

Hello fellow terminator fans.

So anyways it's been snail-like in terms of willpower days (as usual), but nevertheless you're reading this and that means something's been completed. This is the result of late-May dedication, and I present the 2nd biggest chapter of this story so far. The finale is picking up more and more, as it's all beginning to end.

Of course, I make no guarantees so expect ch 12 by late August/2012 in general.

Enough bickering; R&R!

* * *

Everyone was speechless. Some were still arriving on the scene, others were still sleeping. Nathan held them back to the best of his ability. The last thing they needed was a mass panic.

"Nathan! NATHAN!" Connor yelled to get the protector's attention.

"Yes?" He was visibly shaken by what he'd just seen, but still strong.

"Get everyone in the area out. NOW."

"Yes sir." Nathan began to evacuate people before Connor changed his mind.

"Wait;" He realized the best temporary solution to their crisis. He signaled him over to ensure no one else would hear. "Don't do that. Have this sector closed down. I don't want anyone circling around without being personally...okayed by me, unless their credentials are code-red compliant."

"Alright."

"Meet me at door 68. We'll discuss this in more detail there." Nathan left the room. He would do his best to ensure that what had just happened did not bring pandemonium to the bunker.

It would help them single out the murderer.

"Alright listen everyone," Connor spoke to the group gathered near him. "I need everyone here strong." The faintest hint of a tear could be seen if one looked hard enough.

She didn't deserve to die.

"We're closing this sector off. This...was not suicide. But we don't need a panic. We have to keep this contained." Everyone in the room's reaction was varied across a wide spectrum, ranging from still awakening and unsure of what was going on, to freaking out half to death. "We're gonna' make it through this." Connor's words seemed to calm the atmosphere of the room.

He left for the console area to find Nathan. "I want EVERYONE on the lookout. If they see anything suspicious, have them report it."

"Yes Connor." Nathan went to the man in the nearest console room, and had him broadcast the necessary messages. Within a minute the man had divided the bunker by remote control, and given a public announcement over their meager speaker system.

"ATTENTION EVERYONE. WE ARE NOW IN A CODE ORANGE STATE. BE ON WATCH."

"Let's hope this doesn't end badly." Connor told Nathan. They both left, presumably to speak with the bunker's other officials.

Back in the room, Ralph stood over the late comrade, in sorrow.

"Leslie.." Matt could tell he had cared for her.

And now she was gone.

"Does she have any relatives?" Matt asked him. "Maybe they could console you."

"No;" Ralph fought to hold back the tears, and turned to face Matt. "She was the last of her family." Matt immediately backed off realizing he only did more to hurt than help.

"I'm so...sorry." Matt felt what seemed a blinding yet different hurt, due what he'd just done. Had he been human he'd identified it as shame.

To make matters worse a murderer was loose in the bunker. Specifically, leslie's murderer.

_Damn what is happening here? Next thing that'll happen I'll lose my bag. Oh no..._

He'd left it in the briefing room.

Matt caught Nathan out of the corner of his eye going past the room, alongside Connor. He quickly jogged to catch up to him.

"Nathan, what the hell is going on?" Matt could tell he'd have little time to speak.

"We still don't know fully. But we think something in the bunker is out for blood."

"I couldn't request a transfer could I?"

"Afraid not, Connor doesn't want anyone going to and fro now."

"But I left something important in the briefing room."

"I...I can't it now Matt." He stopped for the briefest moment to think of a solution. "But Beth, she has the credentials. She should be by here too. Ask her. Just a sec." He quickly spoke to Connor, presumably to grant Matt permission. He returned with a note.

"Find Beth, and go with her to the gate with this." He handed him Connor's signature.

"Thanks."

"Anytime. Just keep watch Matt, and let the professionals do their job." With that the two importantfigures left.

They were in a surprisingly armored room.

Connor, Kate, Cruz, even Nelson and of course, Nathan were all members of this assemblage of important figures.

Even Jim was there.

"I think we all know why we're here." Nelson spoke. "Leslie is gone, and we have no clue why, or even how."

"I hope Ralph doesn't take it too bad." Jim said, feeling sorry for the two.

They were his friends.

"What do we know?" Connor viewed. "As far as our look out's been aware, there's been excess machines in the area."

"We also know someone died not 40 minutes ago, and it wasn't suicide." Kate added.

"I think this has Skynet written all over it." Nelson said. "Or even worse,"

"Like what?" Connor said, just containing his fright.

"I think we may have an infiltrator amongst us."

"What?" Connor yelped. the one thought they had all dreaded now seemed plausible.

"I doubt it." Nathan told them.

"Why?" Nelson asked.

"Well it clearly hasn't started mass murder, like terminators do. Maybe it's just a dirty refugee..."

"If it is an infiltrator it obviously hasn't gotten what it wants yet, otherwise it'd begin mass murder." Kate said. The addition of the word 'mass' seemed all the more bone-chilling.

"I have some bad news." Brent interrupted them, just entering the room.

"For god's sake man can't you see we're in a meeting?" Cruz questioned him in frustration.

"The surveillance cams are down."

"What?" Kate nearly yelled.

"Put the bunker on red alert." Connor was now starting to freak out. "Something is here, and it's hiding. And killing. And now it's blinding us. I don't want a soul unguarded."

"Isn't that a bit much?" Cruz asked.

"Cruz I don't want to hear another argument from you today..." Connor started, afraid of where this was going.

"Actually he has a good point." Nelson interrupted their pre-feud. "That might actually be whatever that thing is planning."

"You think a code red would help it?" Connor asked, somewhat accepting of Nelson's asserted hypothesis.

"You hold everyone of high status in the same room, it'll be easier to pick em' off. If we keep at least semi-flow going between the bunker it'll lessen the reach of the single supposed 'killer' and slow it down."

While the idea seemed to hold validity and given a figure as high as Nelson had advised it, Connor could barely believe he was considering such a seemingly irresponsible and dangerous choice.

He was torn between two choices. Put the bunker on high alert, keep more people safe and potentially round them up for an execution, or simply keep things the way they were going, hoping it would play out in their luck.

"We have machines wandering into safe territory. AND we have something amongst us. Only one of these things has caused harm yet. I don't think we should do this..." As he said those words he could see a good majority of the people he was speaking to seemed unidealistic to a code red.

And it was all a game of chance.

"I'll hold a vote on what we should do. All in favor of high-security..."

Nathan, Brent, and Connor's own hand went up.

"All opposed..."

Nelson, Cruz, Kate, and Jim raised their hands.

"We'll go back to code yellow in an hour;" Connor's order surprised them. "Let's hope this catches this thing off guard. And more people don't die. This meeting is adjourned."

Almost as if they were relieved of court duty, just about everyone left the room immediately. "Keep on guard!" He reminded them. "And Cruz;" He got the captain's attention. "See if any cameras are still working."

"Yes sir." Cruz left to resume his post. "Guess we won't get that poker game.." he muttered as he left.

"And Kate;" Connor told one of the few figures that hadn't left the room.

"Yes John?"

"I want you and Rachael to go to a more secure location." He held his wife's hand. "I don't want to lose either of you."

"I understand with Rachael, but what if I'm needed for command on the surface?"

"Please Kate; my nerves are wrecked enough. And besides, Rachael needs someone to watch over her." He looked into her eyes. "Do this for me." They both waited in a moment of mutual silence.

"All right John." Kate said as they parted.

"Go to the fail-safe cellar. No one but us, Cruz, and maybe 3 other people know about it. I trust them all." The general indeed felt the location was safe.

"Speaking of Cruz, do you think he's still moody?"

"I don't know Kate." He replied. "I really don't know..."

Matt walked around and around, trying not to freak out that a murderer was on the loose.

_They said to keep watch...What if it kills again? Shouldn't we at least be issued arms?_

Realizing that he was a terminator and therefore very hard to kill, Matt's mind relaxed somewhat, but subliminal fear remained.

_And how am I supposed to find Beth? This place is fucking HUGE. Perhaps she's well known and therefore some people here know where she is..._

He stopped someone randomly. "Hey, do you know Beth?"

"No." Matt sighed and moved on.

_Maybe exploring wasn't such a good idea._

He luckily ran into a familiar face.

"Cruz! Have you seen Beth around?"

"Yeah I saw her a minute ago actually. She's in cafeteria 7B I think." Cruz's answer puzzled Matt.

"And that is where..."

"Go that way." Cruz pointed a direction in the hall they stood in. "Then turn left at the big 'T'. From there keep going til' you see a big lobby. The cafeteria's by there." Matt shook his head yes and Cruz left. Matt followed his directions and reached the lobby within maybe 5 minutes.

_Us protectors don't eat very much. I wonder why Beth is there. Hell, why is there even a cafeteria? Shouldn't food be scarce?_

Matt's theory on food was proven when he finally walked into the eating outlet. It was mostly people talking amongst each other at shabby tables, there was at most 5 lbs of food available at the main stand.

Beth sat at a table by herself, eating an apple. Her loner image almost saddened Matt.

He walked up to her table. "Hey Beth." His appearance brightened her mood.

"Hey Matt." She stopped eating. "You heard the announcement right?"

"Yeah, and it kinda freaks me out. Well not actually the announcement, but what caused it." He stopped for a minute, trying to not reminisce the blood.

"We actually didn't get the proper news on that. You know?" She looked worried.

"Someone was... murdered." Matt said, stuttering. Beth nearly dropped her apple.

"Who was it?" Matt could see the fear in her eyes.

"I..I honestly don't know. There was this one guy grieving over her...I think he mentioned the name Leslie..." Beth immediately understood fully what had happened, and nearly began tearing for her friend.

"Poor Leslie. Poor, poor Leslie...And Ralph..." She looked off to the side, hurting for her friends. Matt gave her a moment to grieve before he spoke again.

"Beth, would it be possible for you to get me through a gate?" He pulled the note Nathan had handed him earlier. "I left my bag back in the briefing room." Beth took the note, realizing his situation.

"Yeah I can probably do it." She left the table to throw out her apple, then returned.

"Hey you don't know anywhere I could get a pen and paper right?" Matt's question puzzled her.

"Why?"

"Well this place is actually pretty big, and I didn't want to get lost again. I just wanted to draw up a little map."

"Gimme a moment." Beth left the cafeteria. Matt sat there, suddenly awkward. He looked about, indeed while the medium-sized room was pretty crappy, it was nonetheless a blessing.

_Completely safe from the machines._

Leslie's death reflowed into Matt's mind. They were not completely safe here.

_I wish there was a way I could help..._

Beth returned, miraculously with exactly what he'd asked for.

"A guy at a control post had some spares, incredibly. Guess it's your lucky day." She handed the rarities to him. "Let's go."

Beth led him into new territory, in hallways he didn't even know existed. He took note of a bunch of the corridors Beth led him through, and scribbled it onto a sheet of paper.

"So what do you have in that bag that's so important?" Beth asked Matt, pondering the cause of their voyage whilst a murderer was on the loose.

"Small things. Repairing tools, tapes, some computer junk... Just small things that I've grown attached to."

"Anything that could help us?" Beth asked, intending for a rhetorical question.

"I don't Beth. Maybe."

They both approached the supposed gate; interestingly Matt did not recognize it as he'd only paid attention to it going through it in the other direction.

Beth handed the man in the glass station the note Matt had supplied her with, and asked for clearance, showing her own credentials. They both conversed for a minute.

"Forgetting your stuff are you?" The guard asked Matt.

"Yeah I guess." He replied.

"Ya' gotta be careful of that down here. It's pretty easy to lose things if you don't pay attention." Matt finally heard the door's latch release, and it opened by itself an inch. "You guys are good to go."

"Thanks." Matt told him before they left.

"Keep the note." Beth handed him the signature. "For when we go back."

"Alright."

After another 20 minutes of chitchat and waking, Matt finally began to recognize the area as his group's entry spot not 4 hours ago.

"How many years did it take to build this?" Matt asked, after he reached the end of his sheet.

"Somewhere around 2-3 years for what you see, but these tunnels sheltered some on judgment day. It's amazing how comforting city sewage is when a nuclear exchange is taking place."

"Makes sense." Matt said. "Although I'm sure it was hardly this comfortable back then." They finally ran out of hallways in between them and their destination, and they both stepped through the doorway of the briefing room. A small brown bag was left upon one of the tables in the back.

Right where Matt had left it.

He walked to the back of the lab, and grabbed the bag. After the brief thought of a murderer on the loose crossed Beth's thoughts again, she looked into the hallway for their safety.

_Come on Beth. It's a whole nother' sector. The killer isn't going to move back and forth. Then again why couldn't it..._

"Matt can you stay here for just a minute? I'm gonna' go check on something."

"Nothing serious, right?" A worried look crossed Matt's face.

"No...I just wanna check." She left. While her rapid departure made Matt uneasy, he felt Beth wouldn't ditch him in his time of need.

On a console maybe 5 feet from Matt, the screen differed from the others. Unlike every other computer in the lab, it was still on.

The words on the screen caught Matt's attention for several moments.

**128****th**** History**

In those few moments the idea of somehow helping crossed Matt's mind again. He casually strode to the doorway previously occupied by Beth, to see if she was on her way back.

He saw no one.

Matt sat himself in front of the screen, and maneuvered through the awkward TUI, using both his 20 minutes of experience from earlier and files on his CPU for such operations.

_ One of the only good things of coming from Skynet. Actually the only good thing. Everything else is more death..._

Matt pushed his contempt for the beast to the back of his head. Unsure of exactly what he was looking for and why he was doing this in the first place, he just looked over everything he could access.

**INDEX...**

** *OPS  
*STATS**

** *PLANS**

** *NOTES**

** *OTHER...**

Matt attempted to open all the records, but they all gave him the same message.

**INSUFICIENT CLEARANCE. OVERRIDE REQUIRED. PLEASE ENTER PASSWORD OR USE PRIMARY SERVERS.**

Dumb folded, Matt realized he stood no chance at accessing the records from here. Trying one last time to get through the index, Matt found a new message appear across the screen.

**VERBATIM DATA ARCHIVES AVAILABLE IN MAINFRAMES **

_ Mainframes? That must be where everything is kept._

Just as he realized this, Beth walked in.

"..Matt? What're you doing?"

"Uh..." Matt reached into a black pit of potential lies, only to find nothing.

"I...i saw this computer was still on, and..."

"Matt those are only for briefing!"

"I was just trying to turn it off." He lied. "It was wasting power." His little white lie seemed to quell Beth.

"Still, try not to touch these things without orders. You can get into big trouble. Especially with that killer on the loose. What if Connor thought he saw a connection..." Beth's theory put terror into both of them. "I don't want something bad to happen to you..."

"Yeah me neither." Matt felt withdrawn. He'd seen a window of opportunity, and it had closed. An image of the resistance hunting him down had also fixated itself in his mind.

It disturbed him.

A half hour later, they finally returned to their sought after quarters. To Matt's surprise the area he'd seen earlier was not the ultimate HQ for the 128th; it was instead a rec room. Where they were to stay was actually a ways away; much to Matt's relief given what had happened to Leslie nearby. After they traversed another corridor, they finally came upon a dead end with 4 rooms over both sides. Each held maybe 2 or 3 cots and some rudimentary furniture.

"Do you remember your number?" Beth asked him.

"I don't think I was given one actually..." He admitted.

"..Eh whatever, just take a room. The specifics don't really matter all that much." Out of his own random choice, Matt took the room at the end of all the others. As he made his way there they both passed Janet.

"Hey Janet." He greeted her.

"Hey." She was wide awake on her cot, on watch.

"Nothing serious seen around here, right?" Beth asked her.

"No. This area isn't dangerous yet." She replied. "Fortunately." Matt finally came upon his room.

"I think this Nathan's," Matt almost rescinded his choice at Beth's comment. "He won't mind Matt. He'd probably actually welcome the company."

"Well thanks for this whole run Beth." His hour-long journey had ultimately ended as a success.

"No problem Matt. I'll be in Engineering if you need me."

"Thanks Beth, but I think I'll call it a night." And with that she left. Just a second after she departed Matt walked up to the bulletin near the doorway, to see what it held. He would continue watch of course, but give his systems a break for at least an hour. Almost instinctively Matt stuck his head out to see who he shared this neighborhood with again. He caught a glimpse of Beth as she rounded a corner.

_ There's just something about her... _Matt's thought self-extinguished. _Stop it Matt._ _Machines don't care for other machines..._

Did a protector count as a machine? The concept lingered in Matt's mind, much like a repeating decimal. But unlike a world of ones and zeroes the machines abided by, the world Matt frequently hypothesized about was of a multitude of colors and numbers, in a much more human sense.

Speaking of the world...

_I still wish I could do more than just keep watch. The computer said the mainframes would hold the information I was trying to pull up. _

Realizing he'd go down the exact same path he'd been down so many times before in questioning his philosophies, Matt finally decided to abruptly cut it and rest. While a terminator's need for rest was an infinitesimally tiny fraction of that of a human's, regular rest ensured he'd be in tip top shape.

Just as Matt laid down, Nathan entered the room.

"Hey Matt, Beth helped you, right?"

"Yeah it's all fine." He pointed towards his bag. "We didn't see anything along the way."

"Thank god." Nathan sat on his cot, adjacent to Matt's. "We're actually rolling back security, you know?"

"Why?"

"To increase the odds we'll catch whatever is here off guard." Matt took in what Nathan had said, but didn't fully understand why it was a good idea. "I didn't agree with it, but we were outvoted."

"Huh. Hey do you mind if I get some shuteye?"

"Yeah that's fine. I don't plan on sleeping anyways."

Matt finally closed his eyelids. He entrusted his safety with Nathan and Janet.

Meanwhile, at the other end of that very same division...

"The null point is being converged on by machines..." Nelson spoke to Jim. The pair was strolling about, on patrol.

"Ok, will you please explain it to me fully what the hell the null point actually is?" Jim seemed frustrated at the very mention of the location.

"About 3-4 years ago when Connor's men made this a formal bunker, they entered through a mall at first. That mall had an unusual number of links to the sewage systems in the county. It was also know as a sort of a 'neutral zone', and both us and the machines have deemed it unused for some time. Luckily they weren't seen. But the problem now is if the machines check the area out, it'll be easy for them to find out what we have down here."

"Why don't we just destroy the building, or fill it in?" Jim asked.

"Like I said earlier, if the machines detect us there it'll be bad news. We can only hope for the best. But if they get near that mall..." Jim took the liberty of finishing Nelson's sentence.

"We're screwed." He stood there for a few seconds, until rejecting the idea. "Nelson, this complex is too big. Even if they found out they'd never clear all of it..." Just as Nelson began to speak, Jim noticed something in a room they passed. It wasn't until they were about 10 seconds past it he decided to go back.

"Jim it's still nonetheless a huge issue if they go near the mall."

"Just a second." Jim asserted, then jogged back to the room. It was a dark room, but while he wasn't sure of what he'd seen it didn't seem dangerous. Maybe a lost refugee?

Nelson waited figuring he'd dropped something; while he waited he heard a faint sound. Almost a sort of a high-pitched squeal. He figured it to be nothing more than his boot squeaking, or Jim retrieving whatever he went after.

When Jim didn't return for another 2 minutes he figured he should either see what was going on, or resign himself to a 10 minute-wait.

As he approached the door he realized how dark the room really was. He began to wonder why his friend had stepped foot in here in the first place.

"Jim?" He called out. When he didn't receive a reply he instinctively tried to go towards the back of the room. He nearly tripped on something big. He looked down, while calling out Jim's name. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he realized he'd bumped into a person on the ground. He could just barely make out the outline of his friend's face.

"Jim what the hell are you doing?"

No response.

"Jim. Jim!" Nelson yelled out. When he wouldn't respond, Nathan seemed infuriated. "Goddammit Jim we have a situation here! We don't have time for naps!" Still under the impression this all was just a prank, he dragged Jim out into the light of the halls.

"Jim!

He still wouldn't move. Out of the corner of his eye Nelson saw something on the back of Jim's head. He ever so gently moved him as to reduce the possibility of neck injury, but his efforts were proven futile.

A plasma wound stained the back of his head.

"Oh no..."

Following the supposal that Jim was truly gone and the realization he wasn't alone, Nelson tore from his back his rifle and re-approached the room again. He turned his barrel light on.

"Show yourself motherfucker!" Nelson hoped his aggressiveness would disguise his terror. "You start killing, we got a problem!" His light revealed nothing in the room, other than a shadow brushing past the door in the back.

He fired several bursts at it's back, but it seemed unphased.

_Just one... _Nelson thought. He sprinted after it.

"Stop!" He yelled after he'd gone into the next room, shining his light around in search of the killer. Unbeknownst to him he'd just passed it when he went through the doorway.

His rifle was chucked away, and a grip so powerful nothing seemed as if nothing could loosen it clasped around Nelson's throat. He was lifted upwards. The light shown against the wall on the other side of the room; useless in identifying the killer.

Nelson hung there, helpless against the exact soul that had terminated Leslie.

"What am I?" Nelson heard the most soft, distorted, and ghostly voice. Nelson fought his fear of death, and muttered a reply.

"You're a monster." The figure seemed to ponder whether or not it had been identified. It also obviously was figuring whether or not it should terminate Nelson.

"Too problematic...like dominoes" He couldn't recognize the voice if he tried. The lack of oxygen didn't help either.

He was dropped to the floor, his rifle confiscated by the figure. Nelson got up, too weak to pursue the light source. He just managed to stumble out of the room and back to the hallway where Jim's body still laid.

He passed out.

About ten minutes later...

Matt stood there, watching in horror as he could do nothing. He was trapped underneath tons and tons of rubble, and damaged so greatly that he could only move his left eye, which had unfortunately been given a perfect view of what was happening. In this state he could remain alive for decades, which added to the horror...

The figure that had murdered Leslie had gone on to murder nearly everyone else in the bunker he knew, even their leader, Connor. Only Janet, Nathan, and Beth remained, onlooking them were maybe 500 people.

All helpless.

The figure held Beth's throat in it's claws. Her body was not that of a true terminator, and therefore not as armored."No..." She managed just before it snapped her neck.

"You can't do this to us!" Nathan screamed at the beast. "You betrayed us!" The figure pulled from it's sheath a metal rod, and brutally charged at Nathan, impaling him against a massive generator. The combined rupture of his "heart" and enough electricity to thoroughly fry every square nanometer of his internals had killed him.

The shock wave had sent Janet to her feet. The monster turned, and strode ever so slowly towards her. She could barely move from the pain, and eventually gave up. The figure pulled from it's cloak a pistol and shot her right in the heart.

She stopped moving.

The figure then turned to face the masses, who Matt now noticed were surrounded by HK disposal units.

"The loss of this bunker will signify the last pitying stand of the human resistance, futile in stopping Skynet. Your kind will systematically fall like dominoes..." It turned to face Matt's remains.

"All because the unit M357.T stood by and did nothing..." Matt could just barely see the cloaked figure's mouth, which smiled. "Just what we wanted..."

After the game changing statement was made, the numbers 128 filled Matt's screen in red, as a dialog.

The figure walked towards Matt, while the numbers gradually became so plentiful they blended into a total blood that was nearly all he could see.

Just before he was totally blinded the figure stopped maybe 6 inches from him, and began to pull back it's cloak and reveal it's face...

"NOOOOOO!" Matt screamed at the top of his lungs, awakening before he could see the face. To his relief, He could move much more than just his eyes, and Nathan sat right in front of him, completely unharmed.

"Matt what the hell?" He retorted, covering his ears. "I think they heard that down in the next sector..." Matt sat there, collecting himself and readying an apology, completely forgetting the contents of his nightmare.

"I'm so sorry..."

"Is he okay?" He heard Janet's voice asking Nathan.

"Yeah he's fine." Nathan replied. "You were making sounds the whole time you were out." The revelation surprised Matt. He'd hardly believed it was possible for protectors to dream, let alone talk in their "sleep".

Speaking of sleep he'd just recalled his nightmare. It sent chills down his spine. It had disturbed him deeply. But it also did something else.

It made him want to help more than ever.

But what could he do? Even if he did access the main servers somehow, what would he gain from it? He knew so little about their situation and the 128th it would hardly help.

Just then they heard a voice in the halls.

"Guys! Guys! Get out here!" It was a weakened Nelson. Matt and Nathan left their cots, and joined Janet to reach him in a nearby hallway.

"What's going on?" Janet asked.

"I...i saw it." He managed shakily.

"You saw what?" Nathan asked.

"I saw the killer." Nelson tried to briefly massage his neck, to rid himself of the pain.

"Who is it?" Nathan yelped.

"I didn't see it's face." Nelson told him. "But I know there's only one. It got my rifle and..." he stopped a moment to regain his breath.

"And what?" Janet asked him.

"It got Jim." Nelson said, shame seeping into his soul because he hadn't gone with his friend into the room.

"Jim? No. No..." Janet began sobbing.

"What? It got someone else?" Nathan spoke. "This thing is picking us off one by one..."

"We gotta get this to Connor." Nelson told them. "I didn't want to cross a gate without company..."

"I'll go with you." Nathan told him. "Matt and Janet, go somewhere where there's more people. Get this news to people you trust."

"And don't go into any shady rooms." Nelson told them, reminiscing Jim's last ill-fated choice. They left, rifles in hand.

Matt stood there beside his weeping comrade, shocked. It had all seemed under control.

It wasn't.

_First Leslie then Jim... who next? _Matt prayed it wouldn't be someone close to him, until he realized something.

It didn't have to be anyone.

He had wanted to help before, but had been too scared to try. Now with the world coming down on them, fear was no longer an excuse.

He couldn't stand it. He had to help.

"Do you have any arms in your room?" Matt asked, careful of Janet's delicate state. She shook her head yes.

"I'll get em', okay?" He went back to her room, to see like his and Nathan's it was altogether simplistic. Still, no guns in sight. After fumbling and getting nowhere for several seconds, he finally caught on and looked between the mattress and it's frame, unveiling 2 forty-watt plasma rifles.

He left the room, and handed her a gun.

"Beth is in engineering Janet. Let's go."

Interestingly Matt led the way this time; he'd gone through this area with Beth and therefore knew how to get to it.

After they entered the area Matt broke off from Janet.

"Stay safe, I'm gonna go find Beth." She shook her head yes, still shaken up from the news of Jim. He left, looking through the fairly large and moderately-populated area for Beth. He gripped his rifle in a casual way as to reduce the possibility of a panic. He asked an individual who seemed to know what they were doing, and he was rewarded with an answer.

"She's in the back, near the refueling stations."

"Thank you." He proceeded to the station. When he finally found her she seemed more oblivious than ever to the feeble state they were all damned to.

"Matt what's going on..." His possession of a gun startled her.

"It got Jim this time." Matt said, letting her piece it together. "The killer..."

"Oh my god."

"Listen, when you said earlier, the whole thing about getting into trouble...I...I don't think it should be an excuse anymore."

"What do you mean?" Beth asked, not understanding what he was implying.

"I need you to get me to the main servers." She suddenly understood his intentions. "I lied when I said I didn't touch the computer."

"Wait wait, why do you want to see the main servers?"

"When I glanced at the computer, it promised history of the 128th...but failed to deliver because I didn't have a password. The main servers have those files, but without the password. You said something was making Cruz act weird...And my mind kept bringing it up while I was sleeping. Those servers hold the key to the killer..."

"Matt...I...I can't get to those servers myself, let alone bring with a new member of the bunker there. I can't do it."

"Look, Jim is dead. More will die and we might even be farther away from identifying the killer. I know very well we could get into soooo much trouble and I don't even know if it'll be a success, but it's all we got."

"ATTENTION. SECURITY HAS BEEN DROPPED TO CODE YELLOW. CONTINUE WATCH."

The code dropped just as Nathan said it would. Interestingly, it worked out in their favor.

"Nathan said there'd be a code yellow. We stand a chance in getting there now. Look Beth, once news about Jim reaches wind of command we'll be locked down and getting to the servers will be impossible."

"But Matt..."

"Look at these people Beth." He pointed around at the group working to maintain power to the bunker. "They are NOT safe."

"But command said they were doing everything to stop it.."

"Which is not enough." Matt paused after making such a bold statement. "Whatever it is, it's outsmarting Connor."

"..."

"Listen, I know it has to be related to the 128th. Cruz is making mistakes. Maybe someone's making him do that. Trust me I'm good with details, I can see through this whole scheme."

"I..."

"Please Beth, at least think about it." In the ensuing moments Beth made a decision that would change the fate of the bunker.

_ Why am I doing this why am I doing this why am I doing this... _Beth thought as she guided him through the ventilation shafts by headset.

"Keep going until you see the V split; go left."

She had said yes to Matt's request to access the main servers; She had passed every gate she could with her card and him until they finally came to places they simply weren't allowed further. From there on Beth's plan to get Matt to the servers involved sending him through ventilation shafts, to a drop off point just rooms away from the computer equipment.

_You're crazy. You are crazy. Connor knows very well how to handle this; much more so than Matt. He's been with us for 2 days! _

Beth's mind was divided on the matter.

On the one hand, if they were caught they would be at the mercy of command.

On the other hand, Matt did make sense. Something was wrong with Cruz in the last months, something that hadn't yet been explained. Given the severity of their situation, and that Matt had promised an answer, Beth agreed to help him.

_Beth you know how much trouble you could get into doing this..._

Beth found a reason to support her choice.

_ For Leslie, Beth. And for Jim. And...for Matt._

"Beth, I've hit a dead end." She took the news almost as a halting to her plan, before she realized it was a simple error.

"Your left Matt." He looked over, dumb folded.

"Sorry."

_ Hell how do I know Matt didn't make the kill and he's just researching his next kill?_

Beth rescinded the thought almost immediately.

_No. Matt wouldn't do a thing like that. I could see it in his eyes. He genuinely wanted to help. Besides, Janet said that Nathan saw him on both occasions when the murders happened._

For some godforsaken reason, Beth held her faith in Matt.

As Matt crept closer and closer to his goal, he overheard words.

"So where is Kate?"

"She's in the safe cellar along with racheal." Matt recognized the voices as that of Cruz and Connor, respectively. "The front on the ground can survive with one less in command."

"Let's hope they can lure the machines away." Cruz said. Matt realized his dawdling could endanger his objectives, so he continued.

_You know these vents seem so fail-safe. Maybe we could all move in and be safe. _Matt self-criticized his own sarcasm. _Stupid stupid stupid..._

"Matt you're nearing the end now. Remember everything we went over, and to be quiet when getting out of there."

"Yeah."

"And Matt,"

"Yes?"

"Be careful."

"I will Beth. Signing out." He shut off the headset, to reduce the risk of setting off a detector. He looked to his left to see the grand exit. He fiddled with the latches holding it for a minute or two, before finally loosening it. He made absolutely sure it made no noise.

He got out, to find himself in the discussion room Beth had told him about. He quickly ducked beneath a very long row of tables, and made his way to the next room.

As he crept farther along, he heard another announcement.

"ATTENTION. CODE ORANGE RE-INSTATED. PROCEED WITH CAUTION."

He'd made it just in the nick of time.

Matt brought his train of thought back to reality, and continued to the next room.

He noticed the lights were dimming now. The last thing he could see before the darkness coveted his field of vision was a long hallway, followed by a small room.

_Just like Beth said there'd be._

Matt walked through the halls and into the room, only because it was necessary. Room alpha B he read before the darkness consumed him. He bumped into a figure.

"Hey!" it was Cruz. If he didn't do something to fix this, Cruz would open fire on him as if he were the killer. He had to think fast. Given the situation, he might actually be able to keep his cover. He spoke using the first voice that came to his mind.

"Sorry. So what's going on captain?" Matt asked him, imitating Jim's voice.

_NO NO NO NO NO! _He screamed in his mind. Jim was dead; he had single handedly screwed himself with a single sentence. The entire operation was blown.

"I didn't get all the details yet, but Connor must have rolled security back up."

_He doesn't know yet. You lucky motherfucker..._

"All right. See ya' round Cruz."

"Keep holding out Jim." After about ten seconds after their conversation concluded Matt finally made his way back to light and out of the room, being careful as to make sure Cruz didn't see him.

_What have I done? What have I done? _

He would have to be swift to make his way out of this.

Matt continued along his short route, the consoles closer than ever. He made absolutely certain no one was aware of his presence, hence the reason Beth had chosen such a shady route for him to take.

_Creepy though. _

It would get creepier.

He suddenly heard a deep cry coming from a nearby room. It sounded of asphyxiation.

Again, a situation where his cover could be potentially be blown had unfolded right before him. Then again if he simply ignored the noise it probably result in somebody's life being ended.

He couldn't live with that.

He sprinted towards the source of the agony in an instant, a power room that looked as if it offered no more safety than a shady alleyway. His arrival was delayed only by his lack of knowledge to the bunker.

Had he known any more, he'd have identified the murderer.

Brent was just barely clutching the wall. Matt quickly came to his aid, catching him before he hit the ground. He noticed a gunshot wound to the back that had penetrated his left lung.

_They're dropping like flies..._

He wanted to scream out, to attract attention to help Brent. To help corner what had attacked him. But he remained silent.

"Need...help..."

"Please don't tell..." Matt whispered to Brent. He would save his life, asking only for anonymity in return.

Again, his cover came so close to vaporizing.

_ What about the best of both worlds..._

Matt took off for the dark room where Cruz was with Brent in his right arm, this time imitating Nelson's voice.

"Brent was attacked by the...thing."

"Nelson what the hell..."

"We don't have time to argue!"

"I know where the nearest medic is. I'll carry him." Cruz took Brent from his arms to Matt's relief, and ran off.

_I hope to god I didn't just kill him. _Matt prayed. _You did the right thing Matt. You'll save more lives._

_ I just hope I can live with it._

Matt continued his route uninterrupted the rest of the way, more careful then ever to be quiet. When he finally came upon the area he saw a lone soldier blocking him.

He patiently resided in the shadows for maybe 20 minutes. His very willing to do such a thing made him question both the reason he'd started this operation, and his own sanity.

_If I have any._ Indeed, Matt believed he was merely a machine, without sentience.

And yet he wanted to save lives, and felt haunted by the lives he couldn't save.

Maybe he was wrong.

Once the man finally left, Matt snuck into the room. He looked over the interior of his new residence, in search of an important computer. Nothing.

He was unlucky for the next 2 rooms, but still far from defeated.

_3__rd__ time's the charm and... what do we have here?_

Matt looked over a surprisingly intact and monstrous console that resembled a 60s IBM hulk in size, but a late 90s dell in terms of controls and, presumably, capabilities.

With the best of his abilities he accessed the disks.

Matt looked over the entire catalog, to his heart's desire. While he felt joy from finally doing what he'd deemed impossible an hour ago, the revelations changed it to horror.

In one brief from late July the 128th had been dispatched to help a distress signal in the eastern countryside of LA. The team had more then enough ammunition for the rescue, but due to an error they left under supplied.

3 died from the team. 3 names he didn't know, and would never because of an error. No one had lived long enough to be rescued.

Matt couldn't believe such a horrible thing could happen.

He dug deeper and deeper to more subtle notes, to find many more similar stories. 2 dead, 4, even a confirmed case of over 10 all because of errors.

What terrified Matt even more was all the horror was hidden. The messages were so subliminal anyone would really have to dig to fully unveil the true history of the 128th.

Who was causing the errors?

** PAST MONTHS NOTES:**

** CRUZ SEEMS TO BE MAKING AN ABNORMAL NUMBER OF ERRORS LATELY. -CONNOR**

Matt was shocked with what he saw. Even an idiot could have pieced together the correlations. The 128th protector unit had suffered too many casualties in the last several months to be a coincidence. Their next operation was headed for the same direction.

_They would have all died on that mission..._

There had to be an inside man screwing things up.

_Could it be one of the protectors? No. They're loyal. But then who? A human? Ratting us out to the machines? But why? _

Meanwhile...

Another meeting was going on, only this time it was much more unofficial; between Janet and Cruz. It all evolved around the possibility of restoring working order to 2 cameras.

The attempt was successful.

At first video showing the dark room Cruz was in earlier when he bumped into 'Jim' appeared, it illustrated a pair of glowing red eyes moving around for quite some time.

"It's a terminator..." Janet gasped, a new fear gripping her. "Connor and Nelson have to hear about this. Nelson hasn't even made it this far after the lock down." Janet's comment made Cruz freeze.

"What?"

"Nelson isn't near this area yet." Cruz's face took a new direction, almost as if he was piecing together a jigsaw puzzle.

"Janet I spoke to Nelson in those halls.." The screen changed, to reveal Matt on the console. The revelation was game-changing.

"It was Matt the whole time!" Cruz screamed. "He's the murderer! I'm placing full responsibility of this on you Janet! You brought that thing here!"

"But how could he..it...but he's innocent!"

"Not him janet, IT. And IT is NOT innocent." Cruz stormed out of the room, to rendezvous a number of people who would help him collect his hypothesized killer.

Five minutes later and in a different room...

Beth hoped the dearest for his safety.

_Lord help him._

Just after she finished her thought Cruz stormed past her.

"Matt's finished." He said. "It's killing reign stops NOW." Beth realized their plan had failed horribly.

Matt was now the top suspect for the killer. However another thought came to Beth's mind.

She had not been implicated.

"I'm having it buried." Cruz sneered.

"I knew that dreadful creature was bad from the start." She replied, surprising Cruz.

"Would you like to help with the situation?" Cruz asked her.

"I would be honored."

As Matt finished looking over the last things he could find, a screen that had just turned itself on near him had caught his attention. Matt looked into the monitor. He noticed a pair of glowing red eyes in a dark room, while "past reels" watermarked the lower left hand corner of the picture.

It was the room he has seen Cruz in earlier.

The eyes stayed in the room, and almost seemed to pace back and forth, instead of simply coming and going. They couldn't be his.

_I don't run my sensors that high anyways._

Suddenly a very heavy and debilitating chill went down Matt's spine.

_Cruz is in danger. Something was in that room. Whatever it was it attacked Brent._

Suddenly the screen changed to the very room Matt was in.

_Oh shit._

Matt's revelation was cut short by a rifle barrel by his head.

"Stop! Stop right where you are!" Matt's tensions were relieved.

It was a fighter, not the murderer. _You left your rifle stupid._

Matt raised his hands to show he wasn't dangerous, but he wasn't going to let this guy get in the way of his progress. "That won't do any good."

"Stop it! Stop it or I swear I'll shoot!" The man was shaking. Matt could see he was convinced that he was a bogey. So he went with the best possible perceived course of action.

He went for the gun.

He immediately grabbed the barrel with the impression it would take no effort, given he was a machine. But the switch that had been set earlier had limited his pistons.

It was a fair tuggle.

Within maybe 20 seconds or so of fighting Cruz, Ethan, and several others had guns on the both of them.

"Freeze!" Cruz screamed, pointing his gun specifically at Matt's head. Both he and the guard from earlier had previously been fighting for a grip on the gun, now they both dropped it and raised their hands.

"I caught this bogey going through some of our servers." The soldier informed Cruz.

"The man attacked me!" Matt yelled in protest.

"Check the console." Cruz told Ethan. "We already have proof, but I wanna see for myself."

He went over to the computer Matt had used earlier, and maneuvered the TUI for several moments. Cruz almost seemed pleased by the outcome.

"It's been accessed, sir." Ethan told Cruz.

"Can't afford to take any risks. Restrain him." Cruz ordered Ethan.

"What?" Matt yelled. Ethan, going against all his senses and beliefs and his heart, grabbed Matt by the wrist, and shoved him to the ground.

"Why?" The hulk asked. The question seemed to have a double meaning; he wondered why Matt had done such a thing in the first place, and why Cruz wanted him restrained.

"I swear I'm innocent!"

"Too late Matt." Ethan said in an almost pitying tone. Matt could tell he had doubts in his orders. "You flew too close to the sun."

But not enough to free him.

"You're making a big mistake!" He continued to resist, but it was no use. The switch that had been set back in the dealership was stronger than him.

"Cruz, there's someone on the other side in the 128th! A person! Don't let them get to you!" Matt cried as he was taken away.

_Look who's talking. _Cruz thought.

"Please! You're making a big mistake!" He managed to cry out before he was taken from the room.

_Why couldn't I listen to Beth? Why..._

"Stun him, I'll take it from there." Cruz told Ethan.

As he was led down several more halls, they finally approached a station that seemed to hold weaponry. A man was waiting there, with a device that resembled a defibrillator, but with a trash can lid on the end.

"Why are you doing this Ethan?" Matt asked him, truly hurt.

"We can't afford any more blood. I have no choice." The man in front of Matt placed the device to Matt's chest. Matt closed his eyes, hoping the pain wouldn't be too much to bear.

"What are you gonna do?" He asked in a whisper. A shock of electricity sent him offline.

Cruz stepped into the room just a moment after the shock had been administered. He told Ethan to set down Matt, and he would take it from here. Afterwards everyone but Cruz had left the room.

"Get in here." He whispered as someone he knew entered. He and the person both picked up Matt's unconscious body, and carried it into an unseen hallway.

"This way." Cruz led the person as he revealed a secret door. After ten minutes of traversing with 240+lbs of luggage, he opened a new door to what looked like an abandoned kitchen.

"I got ya' covered sir." the person said.

"You know how to set everything?" The person nodded. Cruz made a decision he deemed harmless. "3 bags of charges. Tell me when it's set." he left the room.

Matt was dragged into a corner by the individual. Before shackling him, the person looked back to make sure Cruz was gone. They pulled out an exacto knife, and exposed Matt' chip assembly. The person pulled from the pack not charges, but hacking equipment. After some fiddling with his chip, it was out back and his flesh rolled back over the cover.

The person then went to work on the actual job of laying charges about in the lost room. Some of the charges needed to be fixed onto the walls, and so some dust was removed. The person almost seemed to inscribe something onto the wall.

While not easily visible there was a small digital timer on each of the charges, one was set near Matt.

Almost as if it was intended that he would be able to count down to his doom.

The person then pulled from their pocket a master remote, and triggered the charges. They then surveyed their work. After believing everything was perfect the individual looked at Matt one last time before leaving.

_ The cut'll heal shut by the time you wake up. I hope to god this works, or I may never forgive myself._ The person looked at one of the charges. 9:52...9:51...9:50...

_May god help you._

The person left the room, joining Cruz. They both rolled out a steel barrier over the door, to make absolutely certain Matt was contained.

"Is it done?" he asked as they walked away. The person patted their now-empty pack in response, grinning superficially.

"It's done."

Matt awoke about a minute later. He peered around himself to see what at first looked like a basement, but upon further inspection he realized it was a small kitchen, barely lit.

He thought he was dreaming another nightmare in his cot.

He attempted to move away from the wall to further examine his new environment, but he was rewarded with iron shackles, chaining all of his extremities.

Suddenly everything came back to him. 128Th, the main servers, being apprehended then knocked out.

This was real.

_I wasn't even given a trial..._ Matt brought himself back to reality for a few more moments, in an attempt to make sense of his new prison. He then realized at least 10 things in the room were ticking.

He looked to his left to see a charge on a filthy counter. He looked more carefully and realized a timer was right in his line of sight.

8:38...8:37...8:36... He snapped.

"NOOO! You have the wrong guy! I swear I'm innocent!" Matt continued to scream for several more seconds in hope of evoking a response, before he finally realized it was no use.

"No..."

He looked down in defeat.


End file.
